THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •    BOSTON   •   CHICAGO   •  DALLAS 
ATLANTA   •   SAN  PRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LIMITED 

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THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD. 

TORONTO 


MILK  IN  POLITICS— THE  ACUTE  STAGE  OF  THE  PROBLEM,  as  the  car- 
toonist sees  it.  Under  these  circumstances  the  legislator  is  likely  to 
suspend  his  dilemma  by  doing  nothing  at  all. 


Boston  Herald,  May  17,  1912. 


THE 
MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 


IN   SANITATION,   ECONOMICS,   AND 
AGRICULTURE 


BY 

J.  SCOTT  MACNUTT 

LECTURER    ON    PUBLIC    HEALTH    SERVICE    IN   THE 

MASSACHUSETTS  INSTITUTE  OF  TECHNOLOGY; 

AUTHOR   OF  » A   MANUAL   FOR    HEALTH 

OFFICERS  " 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1917 

All  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,  1917 

BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  June,  1917. 


PREFACE 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  milk  problem  is 
constantly  growing  more  acute  in  many  parts  of  the 
United  States,  no  book  has  thus  far  appeared  treating, 
in  a  brief  space,  its  main  aspects  and  stressing  the 
practical  and  economic  as  well  as  the  sanitary  factors 
involved.  The  present  volume  is  designed  to  fill  this 
obvious  need  by  providing  a  convenient  survey  of  a 
perplexing  subject, — not  merely  for  health  officials  and 
milk  inspectors,  but  also  for  dairymen  and  city  milk 
dealers,  agricultural  authorities,  legislators  charged  with 
the  framing  of  milk  laws,  inquiring  consumers  and 
members  of  organizations  engaged  in  efforts  to  secure 
better  milk  supplies,  physicians,  and  all  others  who  are 
interested  in  the  understanding  and  solution  of  the  milk 
problem. 


369841 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

The  author  desires  to  thank  collectively  the  many 
correspondents  who  have  assisted  him  in  the  collec- 
tion of  material,  and  particularly  Mr.  Franz  Schneider, 
Jr.,  Sanitarian  in  the  Department  of  Surveys  and 
Exhibits  of  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  for  his  valu- 
able criticism  of  the  manuscript. 


vii 


CONTENTS 

IR                                                                          PAGE 
HY  THERE  Is  A  MILK  PROBLEM 1 

Nature  and  Importance  of  the  Problem.  Milk:  A  Cheap 
and  Universal  Food.  Milk:  A  Sanitary  Danger.  The  "In- 
visible Cloak"  of  Contamination:  Dirt;  Bacteria.  Bad  Milk 
and  Infant  Mortality.  Milk  as  a  Vehicle  of  Disease.  Sum- 
mary. A  Practical  Definition  of  "  Pure  Milk." 

II.  THE  CASE  TO-DAY 31 

The  Cry  for  "Pure  Milk":  Can  Pure  Milk  be  Got?  The 
Modern  Milk  Problem:  The  Old-style  Milkman — An  Anach- 
ronism To-day;  The  Modern  Milk  Mechanism.  The  Parties 
in  the  Case:  The  Demands  of  the  Health  Official;  The  Pres- 
sure on  the  Farmer;  The  Farmers'  Need  of  Organization; 
Agricultural  Aid;  The  Position  of  the  Dealer;  Railroads — The 
Transportation  Problem;  The  Attitude  of  the  Consumer;  The 
Physician;  Unofficial  Organizations;  The  Legislator — Milk  as 
a  Political  Issue.  Relative  Importance  of  Milk  Control. 
Conclusion:  The  State  of  the  Case. 

III.  /THE  SANITARY  FACTORS 64 

Early  Developments.  The  Beginnings  of  the  Clean  Milk 
Movement:  Certified  Milk.  The  General  Clean  Milk  Move- 
ment: The  Score-card  Method  of  Inspection;  Rational 
Methods  in  Clean  Milk  Production — The  North  System; 
Amendment  of  the  Dairy  Score  Card.  Infant  Welfare  Sta- 
tions. Laboratory  Tests  and  Standards:  Chemical;  Bac- 
teriological; Contamination  Tests.  The  Tuberculin  Test. 
Pasteurization:  Methods;  General  Pasteurization  the  In- 
surance against  a  General  Danger.  Clarification  and  Other 
Processes.  Publicity  of  Ratings.  Contests,  Conferences, 
Exhibitions.  The  Grading  of  Milk:  Grading  Systems. 
ix 


x  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER                                                                          PAGE 
IV.  THE  ECONOMIC  FACTORS 121 

Economic  Value  of  Milk  Production.  Decline  of  Dairying 
in  Certain  Regions.  The  Crux  of  the  Economic  Question. 
The  Plight  of  the  Farmer:  Is  the  Farmer  Getting  a  Fair 
Price?;  Another  Aspect.  Factors  in  the  Final  Cost  of  Milk. 
The  Milk  Dealer:  Dealer  and  Farmer.  Anomalies  of  Milk 
as  a  Commodity.  Economic  Effects  of  Sanitary  Regulation. 

V.  How  SOLVE  THE  PROBLEM? 152 

The  Great  Need — Manifestation  of  Values:  principles  of 
Grading;  The  Public  Value  of  Milk.  Costs  and  Prices.  The 
R61e  of  the  Laboratory.  (-The~R61e  of  Inspection:  Dairy  Dem- 
onstration. Organization  and  Administration:  State  and 
Local  Legislation.  Local  Differences.  Centralization,  Co- 
operative Plans,  Municipalization.  The  Gist  of  the  Matter. 
Who  Is  to  Solve  the  Problem? 

REFERENCES 177 

APPENDICES 

A.  Some  Milk  Statistics 185 

B.  Grading  Systems 189 

C.  The  North  System 203 

D.  Costs  and  Prices 214 

E.  Local  Experiences  and  Investigations 225 

F.  Milk  Products 253 

INDEX  .      255 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIGURE  PAGE 

Milk  in  Politics Frontispiece 

1.  Composition  of  Cow's  Milk,  Showing  Variations 6 

2.  Commercial  Appeal  on  Economic  Grounds 8 

3.  The  Long  vs.  the  Short  Haul 17 

4.  Systems  of  Milk  Supply 37 

5-10.  Typical  "Milksheds"  of  Large  Cities: 

5.  New  York 39 

6.  Philadelphia 41 

7.  Boston 43 

8.  Chicago 44 

9.  Washington 45 

10.  Milwaukee 47 

11.  The  Small-mouth  Milking  Pail 79 

12.  Time  and  Temperature  for  Milk  Pasteurization 104 

13.  Commercial  Appeal  on  Sanitary  Grounds 106 

14.  Commercial  Appeal  on  Sanitary  Grounds 107 

15-20.  Relative  Retail  Prices,  1890-1915: 

15.  Milk  and  Fresh  Eggs 128 

16.  Milk  and  Potatoes 129 

17.  Milk  and  Round  Steak 130 

18.  Milk  and  Bacon 131 

19.  Milk  and  Wheat  Flour 132 

20.  Milk  and  Five  Staple  Foods 133 

21.  Retail  Price  of  Milk  Compared  with  Costs  of  Production 134 

22.  Profit  from  Different  Cows 135 

PLATE 

1.  Interior  of  a  High-class  (Certified)  Dairy  Stable,  .opposite  page  68 

2.  Ordinary  Dairy  Stables  in  Which  Clean  Milk  Is 

Produced "  "    80 

3.  Ordinary  Dairies  and  Extraordinary  Dairymen.  ..  "  "    83 

4.  (a)  Bacteria  Plates,  (6)  Dirt  Tests "  "93 

5.  (a)  Home  Pasteurizer,  (6)  Results  of  Clarification  "  "  109 

6-7.  Primitive  Conditions  in  the  Milk  Industry "  "110 

8-14.  Advanced  Conditions  in  the  Milk  Industry.  .  .  "  "  110 

15.  Laboratory  of  a  Large  Modern  Milk  Plant "  "  145 

16.  A  Small  Municipal  Milk  Laboratory "  "166 

xi 


THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 


THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

CHAPTER  I 

WHY  THERE  IS  A  MILK  PROBLEM 

That  there  exists  to-day  a  large  and,  in  many 
instances,  acute  milk  problem  is  being  increasingly  rec- 
ognized. Most  persons,  however,  appreciate  the  nature 
of  the  matter  no  further  than  that  it  involves  a  "  cam- 
paign for  pure  milk"  which  appears  to  them  similar  to 
the  movements  for  other  municipal  improvements. 
Even  to  the  well-informed  citizen  the  factors  and  persons 
involved — the  dairy  farmer,  the  middleman  dealer,  the 
municipal  official — appear  in  no  distinct  perspective;  he 
is  only  vaguely  aware  of  the  contentions  of  these  differ- 
ent parties,  except  as  newspaper  publicity  may  occasion- 
ally bring  one  or  another  of  them  to  the  fore;  his  interest 
usually  goes  no  further  than  a  jealous  watchfulness  of 
the  price  of  the  daily  family  supply;  he  entertains,  there- 
fore, no  particular  ideas  as  to  improvements  and  read- 
justments and  the  ways  of  bringing  them  about.  And 
this  is  no  wonder  when  the  officials  and  legislators  to 
whom  the  public  looks  for  remedies  are  themselves  fre- 
quently puzzled  for  an  answer  to  this  much-debated 
question. 

At  the  outset,  therefore,  the  prime  underlying  con- 
siderations must  be  well  borne  in  mind. 

Among  all  food  products  milk  gives  rise  to  a  peculiar 

i 


MILK  PROBLEM 

question.  One  hears  nothing,  in  any  general  and  con- 
tinuous sense,  of  a  beef  or  a  bread  problem.  Why,  then, 
a  milk  problem? 

That  such  exists  is  briefly  explained  by  the  conjunc- 
tion of  two  conditions: 

Milk  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  and  most  largely  used 
of  all  foods. 

It  is  the  food  which  is  most  apt,  by  far,  to  be  dangerous 
to  health. 

This  second  condition  depends  very  largely  upon  the 
fact  that,  in  this  country  at  least,  milk  has  customarily 
been  consumed  raw,  without  the  cooking,  or  half- 
cooking,  which  has  always  protected  civilized  man 
against  infection  in  animal  food. 

"Milk,"  wrote  Professor  William  T.  Sedgwick,  years 
before  the  problem  reached  its  present  acute  form,  "has 
always  been  one  of  the  most  trusted  of  human  foods. 
Clothed  in  a  veil  of  white;  associated  with  the  innocence 
of  infancy;  of  high  repute  for  easy  digestibility;  believed 
to  represent  in  perfection  a  natural  dietary,  popular  and 
cheap, — milk  has  always  deservedly  held  a  high  place 
in  public  esteem.  Of  late  years,  however,  while  main- 
taining its  reputation  in  respect  to  cheapness,  food 
value,  blandness  and  digestibility,  it  has,  in  the  eyes  of 
physicians  and  sanitarians  at  least,  come  to  be  regarded, 
while  in  the  uncooked  condition,  with  general  sus- 
picion." l  * 

•-  This  well-founded  suspicion  has  developed  with  the 
rise  of  three  branches  of  sanitary  science:  bacteriology, 
which  has  demonstrated  the  readiness  with  which  milk 
may  be  contaminated  and  act  as  a  medium  for  the 

*  Note  numbers  refer  to  list  of  references  at  end  of  Chapter  V. 


WHY  THERE  IS  A  MILK  PROBLEM  3 

growth  of  germ  life;  epidemiology,  which  has  searched 
out  countless  instances  in  which  it  was  the  vehicle  of 
disease}  and  vital  statistics,  which,  in  conjunction  with 
clinical  observation,  has  indicated  the  part  played  by 
bad  milk  in  the  preventable  disease  and  mortality  of 
infancy.  The  subject  of  safe,  wholesome  milk  is  there- 
fore directly  related  to  the  two  principal  fields  of  mod- 
ern public  hygiene, — prevention  of  communicable  dis- 
ease and  conservation  of  child  life. 

The  milk  problem,  as  we  shall  find  hi  the  course  of 
these  pages,  is  characterized  by  complication  and  con- 
fusion. Its  complications  are  due  partly  to  the  pe- 
culiar sanitary  and  economic  conditions  of  the  milk 
industry,  and  partly  to  the  difficulties  of  harmonizing 
the  several  human  interests  involved.  Milk  is  pro- 
duced in  quantities  enormous  in  the  aggregate,  comes 
from  animals  liable  to  disease,  and  is  handled  by  per- 
sons liable  to  diseases  transferable  by  milk.  It  is,  for 
the  most  part,  under  the  care  (or  lack  of  it)  of  men 
whose  education  and  experience  know  not  the  delicate 
science  of  bacteriology.  It  reaches  the  city  consumer 
by  a  journey  which  is  interrupted  at  frequent  intervals 
for  transference  or  handling,  and  at  each  stage  there  are 
chances  of  contamination  and  improper  treatment. 
Finally,  the  consumer  has  no  direct  knowledge  of  its 
source,  its  history,  and  its  sanitary  quality  when  it 
reaches  him.  Even  in  the  home,  its  final  destination, 
it  may,  and  frequently  does,  suffer  impairment.  Sani- 
tary measures  must  be  carefully  devised  and  correlated, 
and  even  with  an  adequate  force  of  officials — frequently 
not  available — regulations  are  not  easy  to  enforce. 
When  strictly  enforced  they  may  arouse  the  antagonism 


4  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

of  farmers  and  dealers  who  assert  that  they  are  entitled 
to  additional  recompense  for  the  sanitary  precautions 
they  are  obliged  to  take.  The  price  of  milk,  which 
then  comes  into  question,  is  notoriously  a  subject  of 
jealousy  on  the  part  of  all  concerned.  Those  who  deal 
with  the  question  find,  therefore,  that  they  face  not 
only  a  sanitary  problem,  but  also  an  economic  problem 
complicated  by  various  human  factors. 

While  the  necessity  of  a  safe,  wholesome  milk  supply 
is  the  same  for  all  communities,  the  difficulties  of  ob- 
taining it  are  immensely  increased  in  the  case  of  the 
cities.  The  larger  the  community  becomes,  the  farther 
it  gets  from  the  individual  farmer  and  the  nearer  to 
the  domination  of  the  wholesale  dealer  and  the  com- 
plications incident  to  supplies  drawn  from  many  and 
distant  sources.  The  milk  problem  is  thus  characteris- 
tically urban,  but  may  exist  in  the  smaller  communities 
in  greater  or  less  degree. 


Some  of  the  reasons  for  the  title  of  this  volume  have 
now  been  suggested.  Under  the  conditions  of  modern, 
urbanized  life  a  complicated  milk  problem  has  arisen, 
involving  such  questions  as: 

What  is  " pure  milk"? 

Is  pure  milk — or  clean  milk — or  safe  milk — or  whole- 
some milk — practically  possible? — and  how  can  it  be 
got? 

Will  the  public  pay  for  it? 

The  importance  of  the  practical  question  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  it  has  invaded  politics  and  has  figured 
in  a  number  of  States  and  cities  as  a  political  issue. 


WHY  THERE  IS  A  MILK  PROBLEM  5 

This  development  brings  out  the  fact  that  the  several 
interests  concerned  are  often  in  conflict  with  regulation 
or  with  each  other.  The  appearance  of  milk  in  the 
political  forum  is  perhaps  a  sign  hopeful  rather  than 
otherwise,  as  indicating  that  this  greatest  of  food 
problems  has  become  the  subject  of  a  public  discussion 
which  may  lead  to  justice  to  all  concerned. 

MILK:  A  CHEAP  AND  UNIVERSAL  FOOD 

Whole  milk  contains  all  the  elements  of  nutriment 
and  combines  them  in  readily  digestible  form  in  the 
proportions  of  a  balanced  ration.  Hence  its  use  as  a 
substitute  for  mother's  milk  for  infants,  as  an  important 
component  in  the  diet  of  children,  as  a  special  diet  for 
invalids,  and  as  a  considerable  portion,  directly  or 
indirectly,  of  the  diet  of  all  adults.  Its  value  in  these 
respects  is  such  that  it  must  be  considered  a  necessity 
of  civilization,  being  in  this  sense  a  universal  food, 

We  need  not  here  go  into  the  details  of  the  chemistry 
and  dietetics  of  milk.  Cow's  milk  varies  in  composition, 
but  on  the  average  good,  unadulterated  milk  contains 
about  87  per  cent  water  and  13  per  cent  solids.  About 
one-fourth  of  these  solids  consists  of  protein  compounds, 
i.  e.,  tissue-forming  and  waste-repairing  substances. 
Fats,  in  the  form  of  butter  fats,  form  one-third  of  the 
total  solids.  Butter  fat  occurs  in  globules  throughout 
the  milk,  and  it  is  upon  the  size  and  number  of  them 
that  the  creaminess  of  the  milk  consists.  Carbohy- 
drates, which,  like  the  fats,  are  energy-producing  or 
fuel  elements,  make  up  somewhat  more  than  another 
third  of  the  solids,  the  most  important  of  them  being 


THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 


TOTAL  < 
SOLIDS 


WATER 


lactose,  or  milk  sugar. 
The  remaining  5  per 
cent  of  the  solids  con- 
sists of  mineral  mat- 
ter. Upon  assumed 
allowable  minima  of 
these  various  compo- 
nents official  require- 
ments for  "fats"  and 
"  total  solids"  are 
based. 

The  greatest  varia- 
tions are  observed  in 
the  case  of  the  fat 
content,  which  is  most 
commonly  taken  as  an 
index  of  the  food  value 
of  any  given  milk. 

Consideration  of  the 
uses  of  milk  leads  to 
the  broad  conclusion 
that  it  is  a  great 
staple,  the  lessened 
use  of  which,  either  through  popular  fear  of  its  pos- 
sible dangers  or  through  a  much  increased  cost  of  pro- 
duction, would  be  a  grave  disadvantage. 

Pecuniary  Economy  of  Milk  as  Compared  with  other 

Foods 

More  important  than  purely  abstract  laboratory 
figures  of  food  values  is  the  question  as  to  how  milk 
compares  with  other  foods  in  relative  economy.  Facts 


FIG.  1.  COMPOSITION  OF  Cow's  MILK, 

SHOWING  VARIATIONS 

(Report  on  milk  investigation,  Boston 

Chamber  of  Commerce,  1915.) 


WHY  THERE  IS  A  MILK  PROBLEM  7 

in  this  connection  have  been  worked  out  and  the  fol- 
lowing conclusions  drawn  from  them  by  the  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture: — 

Bearing  these  things  in  mind,  we  see  that  milk  at  all  but 
the  highest  prices  assumed  is  a  cheaper  source  of  protein 
than  any  of  the  animal  foods  except  cheese,  very  cheap  m^at, 
and  salt  fish.  At  usual  prices  skim  milk  furnishes  protein 
more  cheaply  than  any  common  animal  food  except  salt  fish. 
The  protein  of  vegetable  foods  is  less  expensive,  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  as  prepared  for  the  table  is  less  thoroughly  di- 
gested. Moreover,  it  is  accompanied  by  such  large  amounts 
of  carbohydrates  that  to  secure  much  vegetable  protein  in 
the  diet  usually  means  an  excess  of  the  carbohydrates. 
Under  ordinary  market  conditions  milk,  and  even  skim  milk, 
is  a  cheaper  source  of  body  fuel  than  any  of  the  usual  animal 
foods  except  cheese  and  salt  pork,  but  is  a  dearer  one  than 
the  usual  vegetable  foods.  Here  again,  however,  the  milk 
furnishes  the  ingredients  in  a  form  more  readily  and  thor- 
oughly digested  than  the  vegetable  foods  as  ordinarily  served. 
Milk,  then,  is  fully  as  economical  a  source  of  nutrients  as 
most  animal  foods,  but  is  dearer  than  most  vegetable  foods. 
It  has  the  decided  advantage  of  having  no  waste,  requiring 
no  time  for  preparation,  and  being  more  digestible  than  the 
vegetable  foods.  .  .  .  Both  whole  and  skim  milk  at  mod- 
erate prices  are  therefore  to  be  ranked  among  the  most 
economical  of  foods  not  only  when  taken  as  beverages,  but 
also  when  used  in  preparing  other  foods.2 

Attention  must  be  drawn,  however,  to  the  fact  that 
with  each  cent's  increase  in  price  milk  may  lose,  or 
seem  to  lose,  its  pecuniary  advantage  over  some  other 
article  or  articles  (unless  they  also  have  risen),  which 
then  tend  so  far  as  possible  to  take  its  place.  Some- 
times the  rival  is  a  milk  product,  such  as  skim  milk 


8 


THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 


Cost  of  Living 

In  the  past  year  5  leading  food  products 
risen  in  cost  at  an  average  of 


64% 


Potatoes  advanced. 
Beans  advanced. . . 
Codfish  advanced.. 
Eggs  advanced.... 
Butter  advanced... 


,.1147o 
..  67% 
..  50% 


MILK 

has     only 
advanced 

11% 


The  answer  is  use 


Milk 


A  Complete  Food. 
Clean  —  Pure  —  Safe 


-n~: 

: 

A 

i\eauce    me    \_os 
equals  in  food 

t  or  Living  = 

%  LB. 
<ggggr;  STEAK. 

value  either      -^ 

/Tm 

-'s  Milk 

Q/YVN       EGGS.'. 

A  Safe  Food 
A  Pure  Food 
A  Cheap  Food 

Drink  it  Youself—Feed 

it  to  the  Children 

FIG.   2.  COMMERCIAL  APPEAL  ON  ECO- 
NOMIC GROUNDS 

This,  if   accurate,   is 

useful  kind  of  advertising  based  on  the 
importance  of  milk  as  a  food. 


or  evaporated  milk. 
Substances  of  less 
dietetic  value  are 
likely  to  be  substi- 
tuted in  cookery,  and 
its  use  as  a  table  ar- 
ticle may  be  stinted. 
At  the  same  time  a 
certain,  increase  in 
price  may  be  inevita- 
ble, especially  when 
prices  are  going  up 
all  around,  as  they 
are  at  present  writ- 
ing. This  question 
will  be  further  con- 
sidered in  later  chap- 
ters. 

Science  and  Ex- 
perience 

The  scientific  de- 
ductions from  the  fig- 
ures for  food  values 
and  prices  are  con- 
firmed in  the  ordi- 
a  legitimate  and  nary  widespread  use 
of  milk.  About  one- 
sixth  of  the  total  food 


of  the  average  American  family  is  furnished  by  milk 
and  its  products.3  The  average  per  capita  use  of  milk 
(as  such)  in  the  United  States  is  estimated  by  the  De- 


WHY  THERE  IS  A  MILK  PROBLEM  9 

partment  of  Agriculture  at  six-tenths  of  a  pint  daily, 
or  a  quart  and  one-half  for  each  family  of  five.  (See 
statistics,  Appendix  A.)  This  means  that  an  enormous 
capital  and  an  extensively  ramifying  system  of  equip- 
ment and  operation  are  necessary  to  furnish  the  total 
supply.  Besides  the  above  amount  of  milk  consumed 
as  such  (either  drunk  or  used  in  cookery)  must  also  be 
considered  that  large  amount  (about  three  times  as 
much)  which  is  made  into  butter,  cheese,  condensed 
milk,  etc.  Many  of  the  considerations  applying  to 
milk  as  such  apply  also  to  these  derived  products. 

The  following  reasons  for  the  use  of  milk,  adapted 
from  a  leaflet  issued  by  the  Massachusetts  Dairy 
Bureau,  summarize  the  matter  in  a  general  way: — 

It  is  cheap. 

It  is  nutritious. 

It  is  easily  digestible. 

It  is  the  best  food  for  babies  (mother's  milk  excepted). 

It  should  enter  liberally  into  the  diet  of  children. 

Many  adults  would  be  benefited  by  the  use  of  more  milk 
and  less  meat. 

More  milk  used  in  cooking  would  add  the  cheapest  nutri- 
tion of  its  kind. 

Proper  nutrition  conduces  to  efficiency  and  long  life, — in 
other  words,  to  good  health. 

MILK:  A  SANITARY  DANGER 

The  widespread  use  of  milk  has,  however,  another 
and  an  unfavorable  aspect.  While  this  universal  food 
affords  vast  benefit,  it  is  also,  to  a  certain  degree,  the 
agent  of  disease.  Of  all  foods  it  has  in  this  respect  the 
greatest  potentiality. 


10  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 


THE  "INVISIBLE  CLOAK"  OF 
CONTAMINATION 

Dirt  and  Milk 

Though  it  is  not  fanciful  to  speak  of  milk  as  a  symbol 
of  beneficence,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  its  veil 
of  innocence  may  hide  possible  dangers.  Most  white 
things  readily  show  soiling;  milk,  as  someone  has  re- 
marked, stands  almost  alone  in  absorbing  without  ob- 
vious sign  all  but  the  grossest  contamination.  The 
amount  of  dirt — to  use  the  mildest  term — which  can 
be  added  to  a  bottle  of  milk  without  visibly  affecting 
its  virgin  whiteness  is  almost  unbelievable.  Of  each 
dose  of  such  contamination  some  is  dissolved,  some  half- 
floats  in  suspension  among  multitudinous  obscuring 
fat-globules,  and  some  settles  to  the  bottom,  where  least 
likely  to  be  observed:  only  a  fraction  remains  on  the 
top  or  otherwise  visible.  The  ordinary  milk  bottle 
tells  no  tales. 

That  the  opportunities  for  such  contamination  under 
present-day  conditions  in  the  dairy  industry  are  many 
is  well  recognized  by  all  who  are  familiar  with  milk 
sanitation.  In  Fig.  3  is  shown  the  long  and  broken 
route  which  may  be  required  for  country  milk  to  reach 
the  city  consumer.  At  each  stage  of  the  journey  is  the 
possibility  of  contamination  or  deterioration  of  the 
product.  Dirt  and  manure  particles  from  the  flanks 
and  udder  of  the  cow,  l\air  and  dandruff  from  her  hide, 
the  manurial  dust  of  the  stable,  the  questionable  hands 
of  the  milker,  the  unclean  milk  pail  contaminated  with 
the  decomposed  dregs  of  the  previous  milking,  or  rinsed 


WHY  THERE  IS  A  MILK  PROBLEM  11 

with  polluted  water,  the  unsavory  straining  cloth,  im- 
perfectly cleansed  pans,  further  handling  in  process  of 
bottling,  bottles  and  other  utensils  of  doubtful  cleanli- 
ness,— these,  together  with  lack  of  proper  cooling  and 
frequently  many  hours  of  transportation,  are  some  of 
the  details  which  demand  the  attention  of  the  milk 
sanitarian.  If,  as  Sedgwick  suggests,  drinking  water 
were  derived  in  the  same  manner  and  passed  through 
the  same  processes  as  milk — drawn  from  the  body  of 
an  animal  standing  in  a  stable,  by  the  hands  of  work- 
men of  questionable  cleanness,  and  subsequently 
handled  as  milk  frequently  is — few  would  care  to  drink 
it.  "It  is  clear, "  he  adds,  "that  milk  requires  and 
deserves  even  more  careful  treatment  than  water,  for 
it  is  more  valuable,  more  trusted  and  more  readily 
falsified  or  decomposed,"  and  also,  as  we  shall  note 
presently — the  most  important  consideration  of  all— 
it  is  a  readier  agent  of  infection. 

The  dairy  cow  herself  [as  Dr.  Charles  E.  North  says]  con- 
tributes a  peculiar  form  of  contamination.  The  udder  is 
constructed  like  a  sponge.  There  is  a  constant  shedding  of 
waste  tissue  from  the  lining  of  the  udder.  This  udder  waste 
often  includes  the  products  of  udder  inflammation.  Such 
inflammations  are  so  common  they  are  present  in  some  form 
in  practically  every  dairy  herd.  Even  when  there  is  no  ex- 
ternal evidence  there  is  often  internal  inflammation  dis- 
charging its  products  with  the  milk.4 

Now  what  is  the  sanitary  significance  of  all  this? 

In  the  first  place,  no  one  wishes  to  eat  or  drink  dirt, 
even  that  of  the  proverbial  "peck  of  dirt."  The  various 
kinds  of  ordinary  dirt  may  or  may  not  be  directly  in- 
jurious to  health.  At  the  present  time  the  tendency 


12  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

in  sanitary  science  is  to  distinguish  between  the  vari- 
eties that  are,  or  may  be,  accompanied  by  infection, 
and  those  that  ordinarily  are  not.  Nevertheless  dirt 
of  any  kind  is  in  itself  undesirable. 

The  instinct  of  decency  is  not  without  meaning.  It 
is  a  protective  instinct,  and  it  is  supported  by  the 
general  fact  that  dirt  is  suspicious.  There  are  places 
where  dirt  is  naturally  to  be  found,  but  when  it  is 
" matter  out  of  place"  it  is  a  sign  that  something  is 
wrong.  We  are  not  surprised  to  see  muck  in  the 
gutter;  we  do  not  shudder  at  manure  hi  a  manure  bin; 
but  when  we  perceive  foreign  matter  in  a  milk  bottle 
we  are  rightly  disquieted.  The  soiled  hands  of  the  day- 
laborer  are  the  result  of  honest  toil;  the  unwashed  but 
milk-wet  hands  of  the  dairy  worker  excite  revulsion. 

This  instinct  has  applications  which  are  without 
sanitary  significance.  But  in  the  matter  of  food  it  is 
truly  protective.  We  have  spoken  above  of  "dirt"  in 
a  general  sense.  But  ordinary  dirt  shades  into  filth, 
such  as  the  manure  of  the  cow  stable:  from  contamina- 
tion it  is  but  a  step  to  pollution,  and  pollution  may  mean 
infection. 

It  is  possible  to  make  theoretical  distinctions  be- 
tween various  forms  of  contamination,  and  it  is  possible 
to  devise  practical  measures  which  lay  stress  upon  the 
more  dangerous.  But  both  decency  and  experience 
aver  that  we  should  avoid  all  forms  of  contamination. 
Decency  is,  in  short,  a  rough  (though,  as  we  shall  see 
later,  an  incomplete)  insurance  of  safety.  But  even 
though  we  are  able  to  secure  complete  safety  by  other 
means,  we  should  still  desire  the  greatest  degree  of 
decency  that  we  can  obtain.  Decency,  as  North  points 


WHY  THERE  IS  A  MILK  PROBLEM  13 

out,  "  distinguishes  humans  from  animals.  Decency 
adds  pleasure  and  appetite  to  food.  Cleanliness  con- 
tributes most  to  decency.  Milk  may  be  safe  because 
it  is  boiled  but  may  be  indecent  because  it  is  filthy."  * 

Bacteria  and  Milk 

Dirt  (using  the  word  to  include  all  forms  of  con- 
taminating matter)  in  considerable  quantities  may  be, 
in  itself,  more  or  less  deleterious  to  health.  But  it  is 
the  associated  bacteria  which  constitute  the  real  ob- 
jection or  danger.  Various  forms  of  contamination  are 
accompanied  by  various  forms  of  bacteria,  which  may 
be  more  or  less  deleterious  or  dangerous.  In  the  case 
of  milk,  they  exert  their  effect  upon  the  consumer  either 
through  their  action  upoA  the  milk  or  through  their 
infectious  character. 

1.  Fermentation,  Decomposition. — Many  of  these  or- 
ganisms thrive  in  milk,  and  in  so  doing  alter  its 
composition  and  excrete  their  waste  products.  The 
ordinary  souring  of  milk  is  the  usual  form  of  fermenta- 
tion. It  may  be  argued  that  such  a  fermentation  as 
this  is  not  necessarily  harmful,  soured  and  fermented 
products  being  used  as  foods  or  even  as  remedies.  The 
answer  to  this  is  that  if  such  products  are  desired  they 
should  be  obtained  by  known  and  controlled  processes. 
The  fermentation  or  decomposition  of  milk  by  miscel- 
laneous, uncontrolled  organisms  is  objectionable,  and 
when  the  milk  is  to  be  used  as  food  for  infants  and 
delicate  persons  it  is  dangerous.  In  every  such  process 
are  produced  greater  or  less  amounts  of  substances 

*Dr.  North  rates  milks  according  to  safety,  decency,  and  price. 
(See  p.  155.) 


14  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

which  tend  to  make  the  milk  an  unfit  or  deleterious 
food. 

The  extent  of  such  bacterial  changes  in  milk  from  the 
time  that  it  is  drawn  from  the  cow  to  the  time  it  reaches 
the  consumer  depends  upon  three  things:  (1)  the 
kinds  and  amounts  of  contamination,  (2)  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  milk,  and  (3)  the  time  in  transit.  The  con- 
tamination can  be  reduced  to  a  minimum,  the  tempera- 
ture can  be  kept  low,  and,  if  these  two  conditions  are 
right,  a  reasonable  time  in  transit  can  be  allowed. 
Under  practical  circumstances  some  latitude  must  be 
permitted  in  the  endeavor  to  approach  the  ideal, — 
namely,  that  milk  should  be  clean,  fresh,  and  cold. 

2.  Infection. — A  different  case  is  that  of  infection. 
The  germs  of  various  diseases  may  gain  access  to  milk, 
in  which  they  live  and  frequently  multiply.  This  is 
not  merely  a  matter  of  contamination  but  of  the  trans- 
ference of  the  secretions  of  already  infected  animals  or 
persons.  Relatively  small  contamination  may  in  this 
case  result  in  virulent  and  far-spreading  specific  infec- 
tion. The  unwashed  hands  of  milker  or  milk-handler 
in  an  unrecognized  stage  of  disease,  infected  manure 
from  tuberculous  cows,  utensils  which  have  been  in- 
fected by  washing  in  polluted  water  or  in  some  other 
way:  such  are  typical  modes  of  infection.  Polluted 
milk  may  at  any  time  prove  to  be  infected  milk;  it  is, 
so  to  speak,  a  lottery  of  infection.  Infection  is  pos- 
sible even  with  a  high  degree  of  visible  cleanliness,  for 
infected  individuals  may  be  unrecognized  and  the  trans- 
ference of  infectious  matter  undetected.  Milk-borne 
disease,  like  other  infection,  "walketh  in  darkness." 

Special  reference  must  be  made  to  carriers  of  com- 


WHY  THERE  IS  A  MILK  PROBLEM  15 

municable  disease.  Bacteriology  has  demonstrated  the 
existence  of  many  persons  who  harbor  and  emit  germs 
of  disease  without  themselves  showing  any  symptoms. 
Such  carriers  have  been  demonstrated  with  respect  to 
typhoid  fever,  diphtheria,  septic  sore  throat,  and  a 
number  of  other  diseases.  While  the  percentage  of 
carriers  in  the  population  is  small,  the  evidence  is  that 
there  are,  in  the  aggregate,  many  such  persons  and 
many  others  who  manifest  only  atypical,  unrecognized 
symptoms  of  the  disease  of  which  they  bear  the  infec- 
tion. Such  facts  must  greatly  increase  the  sense  of  inse- 
curity with  respect  to  the  sources  of  disease.  It  scarcely 
need  be  said  that  a  proportionate  number  of  carriers  exists 
in  the  host  of  persons  engaged  in  the  handling  of  milk.* 

There  are  two  possible  measures  against  infection  in 
milk,  to  keep  it  out,  or  to  destroy  it  if  there.  The  dif- 
ficulty or  impossibility  of  keeping  it  out  has  just  been 
indicated.  There  is  immense  importance,  then,  in 
being  able  to  destroy  it  without'  material  alteration  of 
the  milk.  This,  fortunately,  can  be  accomplished  by 
a  form  of  insurance  which  will  be  discussed  in  another 
chapter — namely,  pasteurization. 

BAD  MILK  AND  INFANT  MORTALITY 

Approximately  one-fifth  of  the  deaths  occurring  in 
the  Registration  Area  of  the  United  States  are  of  in- 

*  It  was  estimated,  for  example,  by  Health  Commissioner  Lederle  of 
New  York  City,  in  1912,  that  about  127,000  persons  were  engaged  in 
handling  the  milk  supply  of  that  city,  and  that  there  might  be  perhaps 
a  hundred  typhoid  bacillus  carriers  alone  in  this  army  of  persons. 
Rochester,  N.  Y.,  in  order  to  guard  against  infection,  by  typhoid  car- 
riers, of  milk  to  be  sold  raw,  has  adopted  the  requirement  of  a  blood 
test  for  dairymen  and  their  workers. 


16  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

fants  under  two  years  of  age.  The  largest  single  cause 
of  mortality  among  these  infants  is  diarrhea  and  en- 
teritis, to  which  one-quarter  of  the  deaths  is  due.  The 
latest  available  Census  figures  (1914)  ascribe  to  this 
title  in  the  Registration  Area  43,532  deaths  (under 
2  years),  which  argues  a  total  hi  the  whole  United 
States  of  some  65,000.  It  is  in  this  figure  that  we 
must  look  for  the  effects  of  bad  milk  so  far  as  they  are 
reflected  in  mortality.  Unfortunately  it  is  impossible 
to  determine  just  what  proportion  of  these  deaths 
may  be  put  down  to  bad  milk  as  compared  with  such 
factors  as  improper  methods  of  feedittg  and  improper 
hygiene  in  other  respects.  We  may,  however,  turn  to 
some  intensive  evidence. 

Effects  of  Feeding  Different  Milks 

The  normal  and  the  best  food,  by  far,  for  the  baby  is 
mother's  milk.  Such  are  the  difficulties  of  artificial 
feeding  under  ordinary  conditions  that  it  is  estimated 
that  bottle-fed  babies  have  only  one-tenth  the  chance 
to  live  that  breast-fed  babies  have.5  * 

There  are,  however,  cases  in  which  artificial  feeding 
is  deemed  necessary;  besides  which,  cow's  milk  must 
always  play  a  major  part  in  the  weaning  of  infants  and 
the  feeding  of  young  children.  Milk  for  infants  should, 
if  possible,  be  of  the  highest  original  sanitary  quality. 
If  the  raw  product  is  of  a  lower  quality,  it  should  be 
pasteurized.  The  evidence  is  that  it  should  be  pas- 
teurized no  matter  what  its  quality. 

*  From  a  careful  analysis  of  a  three  months'  study,  the  New  York 
City  Health  Department  determined  that  almost  two  and  a  half  (2.4) 
times  as  many  infants  were  attacked  by  diarrhea  among  artificially 
fed  as  among  breast-fed  infants.  (Weekly  Bulletin,  June  19,  1915.) 


WHY  THERE  IS  A  MILK  PROBLEM 


17 


The  Short  Haul 


70  percent  of  city  babies  get  theii 
food  through  a  tube  60  miles  long. 

It  takes  about  36  hours— often 
42  hours -'-for  the  milk  to  run  from 
the  cow  end  of  the  tube  to  the 
baby  end  of  the  tube. 

This  tube  is  open  in  many  places 
and  baby's  food  is  frequently  pol- 
luted. It  is  often  wrongly  kept  in 
overheated  places. 

Then  there  may  be  a  diseased 
cow  at  the  country  end  of  the  tube. 


And  Yet  Some  People  Wonder  Why 
So  Many  Babies  Die! 


On  the  other  hand  the  mother- 
fed  baby  gets  its  milk  fresh,  pure 
and  healthful — no  germs  can  gel 
into  it. 


To  Lessen  Baby  Deaths  Let  Us  Have 
More  Mother-Fed  Babies. 


You  can't  improve  on  God's  plan. 
For  Your  Baby's  Sake-Nurse  It! 


FIG.  3.  THE  LONG  vs.  THE  SHORT  HAUL 

This  cartoon,  from  the  Chicago  Health  Department,  brings  out 
the  contrast  between  natural  and  artificial  milk  supply,  and 
suggests  some  of  the  difficulties  inherent  in  the  latter. 


18  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

An  important  series  of  observations  was  made  some 
years  ago  by  Park  and  Holt,6  illustrating  the  effects  of 
feeding  infants  with  several  different  grades  of  milk. 
The  deleterious  results  of  bad  milk  during  the  summer 
months  are  shown  by  the  following  table,  summarizing 
the  observations  on  six  groups  of  babies.  (The  per- 
centages have  been  computed  by  the  present  writer 
from  the  original  table.)  * 


Store  milk  

No.  of 

infants 
79 

Did 

well 
27% 
31 
38 

58 
75 
55 

Did 
fairly 
29% 
29 
23 

23 
25 
22.5 

Did 

badly 
25% 
20 
30 

16 
22.5 

Died 

19% 
20 
9 

3 

Condensed  milk 

70 

Good  bottled  milk  

.  98 

Milk  from  Central  Distributing 
Stations                                    1  45 

Best  bottled  milk  

12 

Breast  feeding  

.    ...  31 

All  cases  excluding  duplications  421        44%        25%        21%        10% 

In  the  whiter  observations  no  appreciable  difference 
among  the  different  modes  of  feeding  was  noted;  what 
might  be  considered  good  results  were  shown  in  93  per 
cent  of  the  cases  as  contrasted  with  the  69  per  cent 
radicated  by  the  above  table. 

*  This  study  is  open  to  criticism  in  certain  respects.  The  small 
number  of  cases  in  the  fifth  group  cannot  be  taken  as  a  sufficient  basis 
for  rating  best  bottled  milk  above  breast  feeding.  The  number  in  the 
breast-fed  group  is  also  rather  small  for  the  calculation  of  significant 
percentages.  Nor  is  distinction  between  raw  and  heated  milk  made 
in  this  table.  The  element  of  care  of  the  infant  (as  well  as  other  factors) 
in  the  different  groups  is  discussed  by  the  authors  as  a  separate,  im- 
portant consideration  taken  into  account  in  their  conclusions,  certain 
of  which  are  quoted  below.  There  is  no  doubt  but  that,  were  all  other 
things  equal,  breast  feeding  would  show  decidedly  the  highest  rating. 
The  Park  and  Holt  study,  while  not  entirely  satisfactory,  is  here  quoted 
on  account  of  its  general  illustrative  character. 


WHY  THERE  IS  A  MILK  PROBLEM  19 

Special  observations  were  made  on  the  effect  of  pas- 
teurized as  opposed  to  raw  milk,  as  summarized  in  the 
following  table:  — 


{  !'  !t§  ill 
Kindofmilk 


i  ii  !    4i  iii  i 

Pasteurized  milk,  1000  to  50,000 

bacteria  per  c.c  ..............  41     31     10        3        4  oz.       3.9     1 

Raw  milk,  1,200,000  to  20,000,000 

bacteria  per  c.c  ..............  51*17    33    5.5    3.5oz.     11.5    2 

The  results  set  forth  in  the  first  of  the  above  tables 
cannot,  indeed,  be  taken  as  indicating  exactly  the 
effects  of  the  different  kinds  of  milk,  for  the  elements  of 
care  of  the  infant  in  the  different  groups  was  also  of 
influence.  The  following  extracts  from  the  conclusions 
of  the  authors,  who  endeavored  to  sum  up  all  factors, 
must,  however,  be  taken  as  indicative:  —  • 

During  hot  weather  when  the  resistance  of  the  children 
was  lowered,  the  kind  of  milk  taken  influenced  both  the 
amount  of  illness  and  the  mortality;  those  who  took  con- 
densed milk  and  cheap  store  milk  did  the  worst,  and  those  who 
received  breast  milk,  pure  bottled  milk,  and  modified  milk 
did  the  best.  The  effect  of  bacterial  contamination  was  very 
marked  when  the  milk  was  taken  without  previous  heating; 
but,  unless  the  contamination  was  very  excessive,  only  slight 
when  heating  was  employed  shortly  before  feeding. 

*  Thirteen  of  the  51  infants  on  raw  milk  were  transferred  before  the 
end  of  the  trial  to  pasteurized  milk  because  of  serious  illness.  If  these 
infants  had  been  left  on  raw  milk,  it  is  believed  by  the  writers  that  the 
comparative  results  would  have  been  even  more  unfavorable  to  raw 
milk. 


20  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

When  milk  of  average  quality  was  fed  sterilized  *  and  raw, 
those  infants  who  received  milk  previously  heated  did,  on 
the  average,  much  better  in  warm  weather  than  those  who 
received  it  raw.  The  difference  was  so  quickly  manifest  and 
so  marked  that  there  could  be  no  mistaking  the  meaning  of 
the  results.  The  bacterial  content  of  the  milk  used  in  the 
test  was  somewhat  less  than  in  the  average  milk  of  the  city. 

The  study  just  quoted,  while  not  conclusive  in  all 
details,  may  be  taken  as  roughly  indicative  of  the  effects 
of  good  and  of  bad  milk,  of  raw  and  of  pasteurized 
market  milk,  on  infants.  We  need  not  go  into  the 
complex  question  of  the  mechanism  of  the  effects  of 
bad  milk  on  the  delicate  infant  organism.  Specific 
germs  may  cause  gastro-intestinal  disorders  and  mal- 
nutrition in  infants,  and  excessive  numbers  of  germs  of 
any  kind  are  dangerous.  The  reason  for  the  greater 
prevalence  of  such  maladies  and  of  the  greater  infant 
mortality  during  the  summer  months  is:  (1)  That  dur- 
ing that  season  milk  is  much  more  likely  to  be  fer- 
mented, and  (2)  that  warm  weather  lowers  the  vital 
resistance  of  the  infant  organism  so  as  to  induce  gastro- 
intestinal disturbances.  While  the  latter  of  these 
factors  may  indeed  be  the  more  important,  attention 
must  be  paid  to  both. 

Such  considerations  as  we  have  now  viewed  are  sub- 
stantiated in  the  experience  of  physicians  and  are  re- 
flected, though  to  an  indeterminate  extent,  in  the  statis- 
tics of  infant  mortality  already  cited. 

It  would  be  desirable  to  know  the  exact  weight  of 
milk  supply  in  infant  hygiene, — a  weight  which  un- 
doubtedly has  been  exaggerated  in  some  quarters. 

*  Heated  to  165°  F.  for  30  minutes. 


WHY  THERE  IS  A  MILK  PROBLEM  21 

Large  groups  of  deaths  are  caused  by  congenital  dis- 
eases and  diseases  of  early  infancy,  which  are  respon- 
sible for  35  per  cent  of  the  deaths  under  one  year  of 
age,  and  by  respiratory  diseases  such  as  acute  bron- 
chitis, pneumonia,  and  broncho-pneumonia  (15  per 
cent),  as  compared  with  diarrhea  and  enteritis  (26  per 
cent),  the  group  affected  directly  by  milk  supply.  And 
in  respect  to  all  these  groups  the  care  given  the  infant 
in  regard  to  methods  of  feeding,  clothing,  ventilation, 
avoidance  of  infection,  etc.,  as  well  as  the  prenatal  care 
of  the  mother  and  the  quality  of  medical  and  midwife 
attention,  are  the  preponderant  factors.  In  the  most 
general  terms,  the  fundamental  causes  of  infant  mor- 
tality are  recognized  to  be  ignorance  and  poverty.  In 
the  infant  welfare  movement  the  general  lines  of  attack 
are,  therefore:  first  and  chiefly,  education  of  the  mother, 
and,  secondly,  elimination  of  evils  associated  with 
poverty.  Those  who  advocate  milk  control  under  the 
impression  that  it  is  the  chief  means  of  attacking  infant 
mortality  would  do  well  to  correct  their  judgment  by 
considering  also  the  other  factors  involved.7  Improve- 
ment of  milk  supplies  does,  however,  take  its  place  as 
an  essential  part  of  the  general  program,  with  the  ob- 
ject of  ensuring  safe,  wholesome  milk  for  infant-feeding 
at  a  price  within  reach  of  the  poor. 

MILK  AS  A  VEHICLE  OF  DISEASE 

The  readiness  with  which  milk  may  become  infected 
and  transmit  disease  has  already  been  mentioned.  The 
following  section,  therefore,  will  be  devoted  to  the 
briefest  possible  summary  of  the  charges  which  epi- 
demiology makes  against  raw  milk. 


22  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

Diseases  Transmissible  by  Milk 

The  following  are  the  principal  diseases  transmis- 
sible by  milk : — 

From  human  sources:  typhoid  fever,  diphtheria, 
scarlet  fever,  septic  sore  throat  (epidemic  tonsillitis), 
tuberculosis. 

From  the  cow:  tuberculosis,  septic  sore  throat,  and 
other  diseases  of  bovine  origin. 

(Milk-caused  gastro-intestinal  disease  of  infants  was 
discussed  in  the  last  section.) 

"Milk  as  a  cause  of  epidemics  of  typhoid  fever, 
scarlet  fever,  and  diphtheria"  is  the  title  of  a  study 
made  by  Dr.  John  W.  Trask  of  the  United  States  Pub- 
lic Health  Service,  in  which  he  collected  and  tabulated 
the  summaries  of  317  milk-borne  epidemics  of  typhoid 
fever,  125  of  scarlet  fever,  and  51  of  diphtheria.8  This 
is  the  most  extensive  tabulation  which  has  yet  been 
made,  but  hi  addition  to  the  instances  recorded  it  is 
certain  that  many  epidemics  have  gone  unrecorded, 
while  countless  scattered  cases  of  milk-borne  infection 
must  have  escaped  notice.  Rosenau 9  mentions  how  a 
single  city,  Boston,  suffered  from  milk-borne  epidemics 
in  the  space  of  four  years,  giving  the  following  figures 
(greater  Boston) : — 

1907    Diphtheria 72  cases 

1907  Scarlet  fever 717 

1908  Typhoid  fever 400 

1910  Scarlet  fever.  . 842 

1911  "Tonsillitis" 2,064 

4,095 


WHY  THERE  IS  A  MILK  PROBLEM  23 

The  epidemic  of  "tonsillitis,"  or  septic  sore  throat, 
put  down  in  this  table  was  notable  not  only  on  account 
of  its  extent  but  also  because  it  was  spread  by  raw  milk 
derived  from  a  supply  subject  to  expert  sanitary  super- 
vision. The  disease  has  been  brought  into  prominence 
through  a  number  of  epidemics  in  recent  years.10  In 
some  instances  the  infection  has  been  ascribed  to 
human  sources,  e.  g.,  carriers  of  streptococci;  in  others 
it  has  been  ascribed  to  udder  inflammation  in  dairy 
cows. 

The  transmission  of  bovine  tuberculosis  to  man 
through  the  medium  of  milk  is  now  well  recognized. 
The  question  of  the  amount  of  human  tuberculosis  of 
bovine  origin  has  been  the  subject  of  much  research, 
conspicuously  by  British  and  German  commissions  and 
the  Research  Laboratory  of  New  York  City.  We  can 
treat  the  subject  but  summarily  here.  Dr.  William  H. 
Park  has  summed  up  the  evidence  and  concludes  that, 
in  New  York  City  (italics  inserted)  :— 

About  7  per  cent  of  the  infants  and  young  children  under 
5  years  of  age  dying  from  tuberculosis  do  so  because  of  in- 
fection derived  from  infected  milk  or  milk  products.  Fatal 
tuberculosis  due  to  bovine  bacilli  is  rare  in  those  over  5  years 
of  age,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  infection  of  the  lymph  nodes 
is  frequent;  30  per  cent  or  more  of  tubercular  lymph  nodes 
occurring  in  children  between  5  and  16  are  contracted 
through  bovine  bacilli.11 

Applying  Dr.  Park's  figure  to  the  percentage  of 
deaths  from  tuberculosis  under  five  years  of  age  in  the 
Registration  Area  (approximately  7  per  cent  of  the 
total  tuberculosis)  would  indicate  (omitting  the  rare 


24  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

deaths  above  five  years  of  age)  that  about  one-half  of 
1  per  cent  of  all  tuberculosis  deaths  are  definitely  due 
to  the  bovine  type.  Another  authority,  Ravenel,  holds 
that  there  is  a  possibility  of  the  bovine  bacillus  chang- 
ing its  type  after  becoming  rooted  in  the  human  sub- 
ject, which,  if  true,  would  mean  that  there  is  more 
tuberculosis  of  bovine  origin  than  we  can  now 
prove. 

While  the  above  estimated  mortality  is  not  very 
great  (amounting  to  about  500  deaths  per  year  in  the 
Registration  Area)  as  compared  with  the  mortalities 
from  a  number  of  other  preventable  diseases,  it  must 
be  remembered  that  there  is  a  much  larger  number  of 
serious  non-fatal  cases  and  also  that  the  amount  of 
tuberculosis  from  this  source  may  be  greater  than  is 
now  supposed. 

In  a  summary  of  the  researches,  Rosenau  12  states 
that  "  about  one-quarter  to  one-half  of  all  cases  of 
tuberculosis  in  children  under  five  years  of  age  is  as- 
sociated with  the  bovine  type,"  probably  derived  in 
all  cases  from  cow's  milk.  The  great  bulk  of  the  human 
tuberculosis  bacteriologically  identified  as  bovine  is  in 
the  form  of  generalized,  abdominal,  and  glandular 
tuberculosis  of  children.  The  percentages  of  mor- 
tality given  by  Rosenau  for  the  age-groups  "  under  5," 
"5  to  14,"  and  "  15  and  over,"  when  applied  to  the  cor- 
responding numbers  of  total  tuberculosis  deaths  in  the 
U.  S.  Registration  area  for  1913  in  those  age-groupsi 
result  in  a  total  of  1925  deaths,  or  2.1  per  cent  of  aft 
tuberculosis  deaths,  as  due  to  the  bovine  type.  This 
is  considerably  higher  than  the  above  estimate  based 
on  Park's  figure.  Rosenau  13  himself  says,  "It  is  now 


WHY  THERE  IS  A  MILK  PROBLEM  25 

estimated  that  perhaps  seven  per  cent  of  the  tubercu- 
losis in  man  is  of  bovine  origin."  The  basis  of  this 
estimate  does  not  appear;  in  view  of  the  others  it  looks 
very  liberal. 

Altogether,  while  it  seems  to  be  impossible  to  state 
at  present  the  exact  amount  of  human  tuberculosis  of 
bovine  origin,  it  is  to  be  concluded  that  tuberculous 
milk,  though  not  the  overwhelming  menace  it  is  some- 
times thought  to  be,  is  a  distinct  factor  in  the  •milk 
problem. 

Tubercle  bacilli  may  be  detected  in  market  milk. 
Evidence  from  four  typical  American  cities  (Chicago, 
New  York,  Washington,  Rochester,  N.  Y.),  summed 
up  by  Rosenau,14  shows  that  out  of  a  total  of  551 
samples  examined  the  bacilli  were  found  in  46,  or  8.3 
per  cent.  This  figure  is  doubtless  an  underestimate, 
for  the  laboratory  methods  may  fail  to  detect  the  bacilli 
when  present  only  in  small  numbers.  At  Roches- 
ter, N.  Y.,  12.65  per  cent  of  milk  samples  taken  from 
185  retailers  reacted  to  animal  tests  for  tuberculosis.15 
Unfortunately  such  tests  give  no  indication  of  the 
numbers  of  tubercle  bacilli  in  the  samples. 

Tuberculous  cows  infect  the  milk  through  tubercu- 
lous udders,  but  more  largely  through  the  manure,  in 
which  the  bacilli  are  excreted  in  great  numbers  and 
which  gains  access  to  the  milk  at  milking  time.  The 
infection  is  derived  not  only  from  obviously  tuber- 
culous cows  but  also  from  many  which  show  no  phys- 
ical signs  of  the  disease  and  whose  condition  can  be 
determined  only  by  the  tuberculin  test,  to  which  fur- 
ther reference  will  be  made  in  a  later  chapter. 


26  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

SUMMARY 

We  have  seen  that  there  are  two  general  dangers  to 
health  hi  public  milk  supplies:  (1)  general  bacterial 
contamination  and  (2)  specific  infection.  Both  of 
these  are  aggravated  by  modern  conditions  of  city 
milk  supply  and  even  of  the  supplies  of  comparatively 
small  towns,  which  may  be  derived  and  handled  hi  a 
similar  manner.  Collection  of  milk  from  many  separate 
farms,  more  handlings  than  ever  before,  and  longer 
journeys  favor  greater  bacterial  contamination  and 
alteration.  The  mixing  of  many  milks  to  make  up 
the  larger  supplies  favors  the  spread  of  infection  to 
hundreds  of  unsuspecting  consumers. 

Milk-borne  disease  is  indicted  by  Dr.  Charles  E. 
North  as  follows,  under  the  title,  "Why  milk  should 
be  pasteurized  " : — 16 

A.  Raw  Milk  Causes  Infant  Deaths. 

Twenty-five  per  cent  of  all  deaths  are  of  children  under 
five  years  of  age. 

More  children  die  from  intestinal  disease  than  from  other 
causes.  Children's  food  is  chiefly  milk. 

Dirt  bacteria,  harmless  to  adults,  irritate  and  inflame  the 
intestines  of  children. 

B.  Raw  Milk  Causes  Septic  Sore  Throat. 

Septic  sore  throat  is  a  violent  form  of  tonsillitis. 
It  is  often  followed  by  acute  articular  rheumatism,  erysipe- 
las, peritonitis,  endocarditis  and  other  serious  inflammations. 

Boston,  Mass.  1,043  cases  from  one  raw  milk  supply 

Boston,  Mass.  227     "       "       "     " 

Chicago,  111.  10,000     "       "       "     " 

Baltimore,  Md.  602     "       "       "     " 

Cortland-Homer,  N.  Y.  669     "       "       "     " 


WHY  THERE  IS  A  MILK  PROBLEM  27 

The  disease  attacks  adults  chiefly.    There  are  often  deaths. 
Bacteria  in  sore  udders  of  cows  closely  resemble  bacteria 
found  in  these  sore  throats. 

C.  Raw  Milk  Causes  Typhoid  Fever. 

Trask  has  collected  records  of  317  outbreaks  of  typhoid 
traced  to  raw  milk.  Here  are  a  few : — 

Glasgow,  Scotland  500  cases  from  one  raw  milk  supply 

Cologne,  Germany  270  "  "  "  " 

Port  Jervis,  N.  Y.  59  "  "  "  " 

Springfield,  Mass.  182  "  "  "  " 

Oakland,  Cal.  262  "  "  "  " 

Montclair,  N.  J.  107  "  "  "  " 

Stamford,  Conn.  307  "  "  "  " 

D.  Raw  Milk  Causes  Tuberculosis. 

One  hundred  and  ninety-one  tuberculous  cows  were  taken 
out  of  the  most  celebrated  certified  dairy  herd  of  632  animals 
in  November,  1914.  In  December,  72  tuberculous  cows 
were  found  in  a  herd  of  86  in  a  model  dairy  where  every  ex- 
pense and  precaution  had  been  taken. 

Tuberculosis  is  very  common  and  the  majority  of  dairy 
herds  contain  tuberculous  cows. 

Authorities  estimate  that  75  to  90  per  cent  of  human 
beings  have  tuberculosis  at  some  time  during  their  lives. 
Most  of  this  is  human,  but  some  of  it  is  bovine. 

Tabulation  by  Park  and  Krumwiede  of  1038  cases  of 
tuberculosis  showed  the  following: — 

Cases  Bovine  Per  cent 

Adults  over  16  years 686  9              1.3 

Children  5  to  16  years 132  33            25 

Children  under  5  years 220  59            27 


Total 1,038      101  10 


28  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

E.  Raw  Milk  Causes  Scarlet  Fever  and  Diphtheria. 

One  hundred  and  twenty-five  epidemics  of  scarlet  fever 
due  to  milk  have  been  collected  by  Trask.  A  few  examples 
are  as  follows: — 

Scarlet  Fever 

Buffalo,  N.  Y.  57  cases  from  one  raw  milk  supply 

Washington,  D.  C.  33  "  "  "  " 

London,  England  284  "  "  "  "  "        " 

Beverly,  Mass.  6     "  "  "  "  "        " 

Liverpool,  England  59  "  "  "  "  "        " 

Mt.  Vernon,  N.  Y.  45  "  "  "  "  " 

Boston,  Mass.  195  "  "  "  "  " 

Diphtheria 

Fifty-one  epidemics  collected  by  Trask.  A  few  to  illus- 
trate:— 

Brookline,  Mass.  12  cases  from  one  raw  milk  supply 

Los  Angeles,  Cal.  35     "        "      "      "       " 

Wellsville,  N.  Y.  84     "        "       "      "       " 

Clifton,  Ohio  36     "        "       "      "       " 

Hyde  Park,  Mass.  69     "        "      "      "       " 

Warwick,  R.  I.  64     "        "      "      "       " 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  exactly  what  relative 
part  is  played  by  milk  in  the  transmission  of  com- 
municable diseases.  Exaggerated  statements  are  made 
by  well-meaning  but  uninformed  persons,  and  the  im- 
pression is  sometimes  given  that  milk  is  little  if  at  all 
short  of  a  poison.  This  is  deplorable,  for  the  truth  is 
that  milk  is,  on  the  whole,  an  exceedingly  valuable  food 
even  though,  under  wrong  conditions,  a  source  of 
danger.  Exactly  how  great  this  danger  is;  as  com- 


WHY  THERE  IS  A  MILK  PROBLEM  29 

pared  with  that  from  other  possible  sources  of  disease, 
is  a  question  which  the  data  of  sanitary  science  are 
not  as  yet  sufficient  to  answer.  For  present  practical 
purposes  we  may  say,  in  the  words  of  an  investigator 
who  has  made  a  noteworthy  examination  of  the  evi- 
dence on  the  question,17  that "  the  accumulated  evidence 
of  scores  upon  scores  of  definitely  demonstrated  milk- 
borne  epidemics  is  enough  to  show  that  raw  market 
milk  is  always  a  risky  food." 

A  Practical  Definition  of  "Pure  Milk" 

To  sum  up  the  whole  matter,  we  wish  milk  which  is: 

1.  Free  from  infection  of  human  or  animal  source. 

2.  Free  from  dirt,  filth,  and  other  foreign  matter. 

3.  Free  from  deleterious  bacterial  contamination  or 
development. 

4.  Free  from  adulteration  and  of  known  food  value. 
Such  milk  may,  in  a  practical  sense,  be  termed 

"pure." 

These  requirements  may  further  be  summed  up  in 
the  three  words:  safety,  decency,  nutrition, 

Taking  safety  and  decency  as  the  objects  of  sanita- 
tion per  se,  we  shall  find  that  if  we  secure  milk  which 
meets  the  requirement  of  decency,  or  cleanliness,  in 
the  highest  degree,  we  have  gone  a  long  way  toward 
obtaining  also  safety.  But  experience  shows  that  the 
two  conditions  are  by  no  means  synonymous  and  that 
if  safety  is  to  be  entirely  ensured  the  product  must  be 
subjected  to  a  precautionary  process — such  as  pasteur- 
ization— before  using.  Neither  a  clean  milk  which  is 
still  somewhat  unsafe  nor  a  safe  (pasteurized)  milk 
which  is  unclean  meets  the  requirements. 


30  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

So  much  for  the  general  sanitary  desiderata.  In 
succeeding  chapters  will  be  considered  the  means  of 
attaining  them  and  the  practical  difficulties  and 
personal  factors  which  frequently  complicate  their 
attainment. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  CASE  TO-DAY 

THE  CRY  FOE  "PURE  MILK" 

Publicity  on  such  facts  as  have  been  outlined  in  the 
last  chapter  has  resulted  in  a  general  demand  for  "pure 
milk," — a  demand  associated  in  the  public  mind  with 
the  general  movement  for  "pure  food."  A  language 
of  milk  "horrifies"  has  been  developed,  based  at  one 
end  on  more  or  less  exaggerated  fact  and  on  the  other 
on  the  fear  emotion  of  the  public.  Sanitary  reformers, 
enterprising  health  officials,  lecturers,  and  writers 
have  vied  with  each  other  in  vivid  picturing  of  the 
menaces  of  impure  milk.  Bacteria  in  milk  have  been 
branded  as  the  "invisible  murderers"  that  produce  the 
"slaughter  of  the  innocents."  Newspapers  eager  for 
popular  sensation  have  been  quick  to  see  the  publicity 
value  of  all  this  and  have  given  it  columns  of  space. 
Some  have  even  conducted  inspection  campaigns  of 
their  own,  professing  their  inability  completely  to 
tell  the  "unbelievable  truth  of  the  unsanitary  condi- 
tions which  have  been  existing."  As  the  result  of  their 
efforts  they  have  announced  the  "cleaning  of  the 
Augean  stables  in  a  day,"  and  have  then  turned  the 
matter  over  to  be  dealt  with  by  the  "angered  au- 
thorities." 

The  following  utterances  quoted  in  a  recent  news- 
paper account  of  a  milk  inspectors'  meeting,  headed 

31 


32  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

"Mr.  Milk  Supply  is  worse  than  Mr.  Barleycorn/'  are 
fair  examples  of  the  harrowing  type : — * 

Fifty  per  cent  of  the  milk  that  goes  to  the  creamery  for 
pasteurization  is  filthy,  utterly  unfit  for  food. 

The  farmer  is  hopeless — dirty,  mostly  ignorant,  careless. 
Because  he  can't  get  enough  for  his  milk  he  won't  give  good 
milk. 

We  have  found  to  our  dismay  that  dealers  on  whom  we 
have  been  depending  have  been  permitting  large  numbers 
of  diseased  cattle  in  their  herds. 

We  can't  get  the  right  kind  of  legislation. 

The  politicians  are  playing  a  political  game  with  the 
farmers.  We've  got  to  depend  on  our  own  efforts. 

There  are  only  two  grades  of  milk — good  milk  and  bad 
milk.  The  rest  are  simply  grades  of  dirt. 

Such  utterances  have  awakened  public  attention, 
but  they  have  had  at  the  same  time  an  undesirable 
effect  on  the  minds  of  some  persons.  Just  as  publicity 
regarding  tuberculosis  has  had  as  a  by-product  an 
undue  dread  of  consumptives,  so  has  the  "pure  milk" 
campaign  made  some  people  fearful  of  milk  as  such. 
This  has  been  perhaps  an  unavoidable  incident  of 
forceful  publicity,  but  it  is  an  unfortunate  one  now 
calling  for  correction. 

*  The  language  and  literature  of  exposure  are  not  a  new  development. 
A  notable  example  dates  back  to  Smollett's  description,  in  the  novel 
"Humphrey  Clinker,"  of  the  milk  supply  of  eighteenth-century  Lon- 
don:— "I  need  not  dwell  on  the  pallid  contaminated  mush  which  they 
call  strawberries,  soiled  and  tossed  by  greasy  paws  through  twenty 
baskets  crusted  with  dirt,  and  then  presented  with  the  worst  milk, 
thickened  with  the  worst  flour,  into  a  bad  likeness  of  cream;  but  the 
milk  itself  should  not  pass  unanalyzed,  the  produce  of  faded  cabbage 
leaves  and  sour  draff,  lowered  with  hot  water,  frothed  with  bruised 
snails,  carried  through  the  streets  in  open  pails,  exposed  to  foul  rinsings 


THE  CASE  TO-DAY  33 

Dairies,  recognizing  the  state  of  the  public  mind, 
have  taken  to  advertising,  with  the  catch-phrase  "pure 
milk."  Letters  are  written  in  the  newspapers  demand- 
ing it.  Legislators  introduce  "pure  milk  bills"  designed 
to  conciliate  the  consumer  without  arousing  the  farmer. 
Civic  organizations  make  it  a  major  issue,  the  subject 
of  campaigns.  Investigations  are  constantly  under 
way  and  "solutions  of  the  problem"  are  galore.  Polit- 
ical platforms  contain  "pure  milk"  planks  so  guardedly 
worded  as  to  conciliate  all  parties  concerned.  Health 
authorities  long  ago  promised  that  "the  consumer 
should  be  educated  to  the  value  of  clean  milk."  And 
now  agricultural  authorities,  awaking  to  their  responsi- 
bilities, announce  that  "dairymen  must  be  educated  to 
the  value  of  clean  milk."  And  farmers  hold  indigna- 
tion meetings  to  protest  that  they  never  intended  to 
produce  anything  but  pure  milk  and  that  they  have  a 
natural  right  to  be  let  alone  by  theorists.  Everybody 
is  trying  to  educate  somebody  else.  "Pure  Milk"  is  a 
phrase  to  conjure  with. 

Can  Pure  Milk  be  Got  ? 

Much  of  this  agitation  is  unaccompanied  by  clear 
understanding  of  the  facts.  A  recent  public  health 

discharged  from  doors  and  windows,  spittle,  snot,  and  tobacco  quids 
from  foot-passengers,  overflowings  from  mud-carts,  spatterings  from 
coach-wheels,  dirt  and  trash  chucked  into  it  by  roguish  boys  for  the 
joke's  sake,  the  spewings  of  infants,  who  have  slabbered  in  the  tin 
measure,  which  is  thrown  back  in  that  condition  among  the  milk,  for 
the  benefit  of  the  next  customer;  and,  finally,  the  vermin  that  drops 
from  the  rags  of  the  nasty  drab  that  vends  this  precious  mixture,  under 
the  respectable  denomination  of  milkmaid."  Fortunately  it  takes  much 
less  than  such  a  description  to  shock  the  more  sensitive,  better-informed 
modern  milk-consumer! 


34  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

bulletin  concludes  a  discussion  of  milk  supply  with 
the  words,  "The  choice  is  easy.  Insist  upon  clean, 
pure  milk."  Everyone  familiar  with  the  subject  has 
heard  or  read  that  sentiment  hundreds  of  times.  The 
phrase  "pure  milk"  suggests  its  opposite,  "impure 
milk,"  and  it  is  a  common  popular  idea  derived  from 
these  terms  that  there  are  two  clearly  distract  kinds 
of  milk,  good  milk  and  bad  milk.  Many  people  doubt- 
less believe  that  an  inspector  can  thrust  a  tester  into  a 
can  of  milk  and  decide  instantly  in  which  category  it 
belongs.  The  usual  demand  for  "pure  milk"  is  a  de- 
mand for  the  best  milk,  and  the  notion  is  that  one  such 
best  can  be  both  denned  and  universally  obtained. 
"The  chief  good  to  be  accomplished  at  the  outset," 
writes  a  newspaper  in  comment  upon  a  milk  campaign, 
"will  be  the  arousing  of  public  sentiment  against  any- 
thing but  the  purest  milk." 

The  trouble  with  this  is  that  it  requires  an  absolute 
ideal  incompatible  with  practical  conditions.  Bac- 
teria in  milk  are  impurities,  but  it  should  be  recognized 
that  a  certain  bacterial  content  must  practically  be 
permitted  according  to  the  purpose  for  which  the 
product  is  to  be  used.  Again,  there  are  varying  nat- 
ural degrees  of  nutritional  value,  and  science  has  not 
determined  exactly  what  is  the  most  nutritive  milk. 

The  air  would  be  cleared  if  we  spoke  of  milks,  thus 
emphasizing  their  differing  characters.  The  scientific 
object  is  to  gauge  the  qualities  of  milk  of  different 
characters  and  reduce  them  to  categories.  When  this 
is  done  it  is  seen  that  instead  of  speaking  of  one  ab- 
solute kind  of  pure  milk,  it  is  logical  to  define  what 
shall  be  considered  a  "pure  milk"  for  infants,  or  for 


THE  CASE  TO-DAY  35 

adults,  or  for  cooking  and  manufacturing  purposes, 
and  then  to  endeavor  to  get  the  best  possible  milk  for 
each  purpose. 

To  give  an  answer  to  the  question,  "Can  pure  milk 
be  got?"  it  may  be  said  that  to  raise  all  milk  to  the 
highest  quality  is  impracticable,  but  to  obtain  a  safe, 
suitable  milk  for  each  purpose  is  entirely  possible. 
And  this  should  be  the  immediate  object  of  practical 
milk  sanitation. 

THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

The  present-day  problem  of  milk  supplies  is  rooted 
in  an  obvious  condition  of  modern  urban  civilization— 
the  wide  separation  of  the  producer  and  the  consumer. 
It  is  also  true,  no  doubt,  that  the  conditions  of  urban 
life  have  made  city  babies  and  children,  and  city 
dwellers  in  general,  more  susceptible  to  the  effects  of 
bad  or  infected  milk.  But  it  is  the  long  haul  and  the 
broken  journey  that  are  chiefly  responsible  for  typically 
modern  conditions.  To  illustrate  roughly  why  the 
milk  question  has  come  to  the  fore  in  recent  years  with 
such  insistence,  we  need  only  point  to  two  contrasted 
pictures — the  old-time  milk  supply  and  that  of  the 
present  day  in  our  cities. 

The  Old-Style  Milkman:  An  Anachronism  To-day 

The  old-time  milkman  kept  his  cows  just  as  he 
would  keep  any  other  live  stock.  He  went  about  his 
milking  in  the  rough,  untutored  manner  that  he  would 
go  about  any  other  farm  work,  without  stopping  to 
wash  the  dirt  of  honest  toil  from  his  hands,  or  to  clean 
the  caked  manure  from  the  udders  of  his  cows.  The 


36  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

family  kitchen  was  the  milk-house  where  cans  were 
washed.  He  drove  into  the  nearby  town  and  with  a 
dipper  ladled  out  his  product  into  whatever  pans  or 
pitchers  were  presented  to  receive  it.  There  were  sani- 
tary objections  to  these  methods,  but  few  or  no  sani- 
tarians to  point  them  out. 

The  consumer  found  no  serious  fault  with  any  milk- 
man but  the  one  who  eked  out  his  supply  by  means 
of  the  pump. 

Even  to-day  the  old-style  milkman  survives,  and 
many  small  towns  and  some  large  ones  receive  their 
supplies  in  some  such  manner  as  the  above.  In  fact, 
he  has  by  no  means  disappeared,  but  has  simply  be- 
come absorbed  in  the  modern  milk  mechanism. 

The  Modern  Milk  Mechanism 

With  the  growth  of  towns  and  the  reaching-out  into 
the  country  for  milk  supplies  from  comparatively  dis- 
tant and  unknown  sources,  the  old  evils  were  exag- 
gerated and  new  ones  added.  Whatever  check  existed 
in  the  knowledge  of  the  consumer  of  his  source  of  supply 
disappeared.  The  element  of  time,  with  the  danger 
of  stale  or  decomposed  milk,  became  important.  The 
product  passed  through  the  hands  of  a  new  class  of 
men,  the  dealers  or  middlemen,  who  perhaps  scarcely 
ever  see  a  dairy  farm.  The  railroad  was  called  into 
requisition,  introducing  a  new  difficulty.  Quantities 
of  milk  were  mixed  for  shipment  by  wholesalers,  thus 
making  possible  the  infection  of  large  supplies  by  a 
few  quarts.  The  city  milk  plant,  with  its  frequent 
lack  of  sanitation,  came  into  existence.  And  now,  at 
the  present  time,  the  old-fashioned  methods  of  milk 


THE  CASE  TO-DAY 


37 


TOWN 


/T 


n 


COUNTRY  MILK  PLANT 
OR  COLLECTING  POINT 


-CITY  MILK  PLANT  OR  DEPOT 


FIG.  4.  SYSTEMS  OF  MILK  SUPPLY 

Upper  figure:  simple  or  undeveloped  state,  small  communities.  Each 
dairyman  retails  his  own  supply,  sometimes  drawing  from  his  neigh- 
bors. Lower  figure:  developed  state,  under  city  conditions.  Milk 
depots  for  centralizing  such  operations  as  collection,  pasteurizing, 
bottling,  and  transferring  milk  by  wholesale  are  in  this  case  an 
economic  necessity.  In  many  communities  a  mixture  of  the  two 
systems  exists. 


38  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

production  prevail  to  a  large  extent,  with  the  modern 
disadvantages  and  dangers  added  to  them. 

In  this  final  form  of  milk  supply  the  producer  may  have 
no  idea  whatever  of  the  final  destination  of  his  milk;  and 
the  consumer,  as  a  rule,  neither  knows  nor  cares  where  the 
milk  which  he  buys  comes  from.  The  personal  relation 
between  consumer  and  producer  is  totally  lost,  and  the 
middleman  comes  to  hold  the  position  of  principal  impor- 
tance, as  the  only  person  in  touch  with  all.  These  circum- 
stances, and  the  very  size  of  the  system,  tend  to  make  it 
largely  mechanical,  and  all  connected  with  it  merely  sub- 
ordinate parts  in  a  great  machine  which,  for  good  or  ill, 
must  work  on  incessantly.  .  .  .  Under  this  system  the  milk 
is  often  two  days  old  .  .  .  before  it  is  actually  consumed. 
It  also  necessarily  passes  through  many  hands  en  route,  and 
is  therefore  accessible  to  manipulation,  adulteration  and 
contamination.1 

The  following  picture,  given  by  Rosenau,  sketches 
verbally  the  situation  shown  graphically  in  Fig.  3: 

Milk  when  it  reaches  the  consumer  in  the  city  is  often  very 
different  when  compared  to  the  same  milk  used  on  the  farm. 
The  farmer  cannot  understand  why  it  is  that  the  milk  agrees 
with  his  baby,  but  makes  the  city  baby  sick.  He  forgets 
that  the  milk  he  sends  to  the  city  is  often  placed  in  dirty 
cans,  perhaps  rinsed  with  infected  water  or  mopped  " clean" 
with  soiled  cloths.  The  cans  are  often  placed  on  the  farm 
wagon  and  carted  several  miles  to  the  nearest  railroad  sta- 
tion, where  they  stand  some  time  in  the  sun  and  occasionally 
are  exposed  to  dust,  flies,  and  prying  fingers  of  irresponsible 
persons.  After  this  they  are  loaded  on  the  milk  car,  which  is 
perhaps  warm.  Arriving  in  the  city,  the  cans  again  stand 
around  the  milk  platform  waiting  for  the  city  wagon,  when 


FIG.  5.  TYPICAL  "MILKSHEDS"  OF  LARGE  CITIES 
(a)  New  York  (1905).     (This  and  the  next  four  maps  are  derived  from 
Bulletins  81  and  138  of  the  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry,  U.  S.  Dept.  of 
Agriculture.    Since  the  investigations  were  made  the  milk  octopus  has 
in  each  case  reached  out  still  farther.) 

39 


40  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

they  are  carted  to  the  city  dairy.  Here  they  are  opened, 
the  milk  is  tasted  and  smelled,  and  poured  into  a  large  vat, 
where  the  contents  of  the  can  is  mixed  with  the  milk  from 
numerous  other  cans.  From  this  vat  the  milk  is  pumped  to 
a  clarifier,  where  much  of  the  dirt  and  slime  is  removed. 
From  there  it  may  pass  through  other  processes  before  it  is 
cooled  and  bottled.  The  bottle  may  not  have  been  properly 
cleansed  and  sterilized.  This  bottle  is  placed  upon  a  wagon 
and  carried  to  the  householder,  who  thus  receives  milk  that 
is  several  days  old,  has  been  frequently  handled,  has  come  in 
contact  with  a  number  of  different  containers  and  machines, 
and  has  had  a  good  chance  to  deteriorate  as  well  as  to  collect 
various  kinds  of  dirt,  with  the  possibility  of  picking  up 
infection.  City  milk,  stale,  dirty,  and  bacteria-laden,  is 
therefore  a  very  different  article  from  the  fresh  country 
brand.2 

Fortunately  the  worst  of  these  features  do  not  always 
prevail.  There  are  special  milks,  such  as  certified  milk, 
which  are  produced  and  handled  with  a  high  degree 
of  precaution.  There  are  dealers  who  take  every  care 
asked  of  them,  and  there  are  milk  concerns  which 
have  their  own  inspection  and  testing  systems  and 
operate  plants  which  are  sanitary  in  every  particular. 
But  we  are  here  discussing  the  general  situation,  and 
the  former  picture  must  be  taken  as  typical  of  a  great 
deal  of  city  milk. 

This  problem  of  urban  milk  supplies  is  not  new,  but 
it  is  constantly  growing.  It  has  been  growing  in  years 
past  and  will  continue  to  grow  with  the  increasing  ur- 
banization of  our  population.*  It  is,  primarily,  a  mat- 

*  As  an  extreme  example  of  the  condition  toward  which  urbanization 
tends,  one  may  take  New  York  City,  which  receives  very  little  milk 


THE  CASE  TO-DAY 


41 


42  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

ter  of  the  larger  centers  of  population,  yet  so  far  is  the 
urban  social  structure  characteristic  even  of  the  smaller 
centers  that  they  may  have  a  similar  problem.  It  not 
infrequently  happens,  for  example,  that  a  suburb  or  a 
town  situated  near  a  large  city  has  milk  supplies  which 
come  from  that  center  and  are  originally  drawn  from 
some  distant  region;  or  such  supplies  may  be  dropped 
off  from  a  main  artery  of  railroad  traffic.  It  is  not, 
therefore,  entirely  a  question  of  the  size  of  the  com- 
munity, but  of  local  conditions.  Even  towns  where 
the  supply  is  derived  from  near  by  have  their  difficul- 
ties in  obtaining  satisfactory  milk  supplies. 

THE  PARTIES  IN  THE  CASE 

The  human  factor  looms  large  in  the  milk  question. 
Aside  from  the  sanitary  and  economic  factors  involved, 
efforts  at  a  just  and  harmonious  solution  have  to  con- 
tend with  the  different,  and  too  often  conflicting,  in- 
terests of  several  distinct  classes  of  men.  Controversy 
has  been  aggravated  and  prolonged  by  ignorance  of 
underlying  facts,  by  distrust  among  the  parties  in  the 
case,  and  by  natural  refusal  to  concede  points  not 
clearly  proved.  We  shall  sketch  here  the  general 
grounds  of  these  different  standpoints. 

from  within  fifty  miles  of  the  city,  its  daily  supply  of  2,500,000  quarts 
being  derived  from  44,000  farms  located  in  six  different  States  (1912). 
Boston  gets  most  of  its  supply  from  outside  of  a  fifty-mile  radius, 
drawing  from  six  States  and  Canada.  Chicago  presents  a  somewhat 
different  picture,  most  of  its  supply  coming  from  comparatively  near  by, 
but  in  this  case  there  are  many  separate  sources  of  supply  and  com- 
plexity of  milk  routes.  Such  conditions,  though  cited  from  the  largest 
cities,  are  illustrative  of  general  tendencies  under  urban  and  even  under 
suburban  conditions. 


THE  CASE  TO-DAY 


"fe 

/ 


CO*/     M    £'    C    T     I     C     \/T 


5CM.P,  :  H11--ES 


FIG.  7.  TYPICAL  MILKSHEDS 


(c)  Boston  (1905). 


THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 


THE  DEMANDS  OF  THE  HEALTH  OFFICIAL 

The  sanitarian  and  the  health  officer  have  naturally 
taken  the  leading  part  in  the  milk  debate.  On  the 
whole  they  have  had  a  fair  hearing  and  there  has  been 
an  inclination  to  heed  their  counsel  when  this  was  strong 


FIG.  8.  TYPICAL  MILKSHEDS 
(d)  Chicago  (1911). 

and  definite.  They  have,  however,  labored  under  the 
disadvantage  of  having  to  deal  with  a  matter  involving 
difficulties  if  not  complications  and  one  apt  to  be  over- 
shadowed by  other  public  health  problems.  They  have 
sometimes  framed  verbose  or  impossible  regulations. 
They  have  often  failed  to  impress  the  dairyman  by 
meeting  his  practical  objections.  As  one  writer  says: — 


THE  CASE  TO-DAY 


45 


The  position  of  the  boards  of  health  has  been  difficult,  for 
they  have  been  charged  by  the  farmers  with  ignorance  of 
farm  conditions,  by  the  railroads  with  imposing  impossible 


P       E     N     N      S     Y 


FIG.  9.  TYPICAL  MILKSHEDS 

(e)  Washington  (1911).     Heavy  dots  show  points  from  which  milk 
cars  start,  largest  shipping  points  enclosed  by  circles. 

orders  as  regards  icing  and  other  matters,  and  by  contractors 
with  the  promulgation  of  regulations  that  were  unnecessary, 
arduous  and  expensive.3 

The  active  health  officer  or  milk  inspector  must  ex- 
pect more  or  less  objection  and  misconception  from 


46  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

those  whom  his  activities  affect.  He  must,  therefore, 
be  prepared  to  deal  with  difficulties  and  justify  his 
course. 

THE  PRESSURE  ON  THE  FARMER 

It  is  from  the  producer,  the  dairy  farmer,  whether  he 
retails  his  product  himself  or  sells  to  a  middleman,  that 
the  loudest  opposition  to  higher  sanitary  requirements 
has  come.  His  most  frequent  protestation  relates  to 
the  price  that  he  receives, — namely,  that  he  cannot 
make  sanitary  improvements  which  necessitate  greater 
expense  and  care  without  some  increase  hi  that  price. 
He  argues  that  his  labor  is  becoming  harder,  his  ex- 
penses heavier,  and  his  margin  of  profit  (if,  indeed,  it 
exists)  smaller,  while  time-honored  ways  are  being 
replaced  by  " new-fangled  notions"  which  bring  him 
no  benefit.  "The  complaint  is,"  as  an  agricultural 
journal  remarked  not  long  ago,  "that  everything  used 
in  the  production  of  milk  has  increased  in  cost  during 
recent  years,  while  the  price  of  milk  has  remained  prac- 
tically the  same  or  [is]  in  some  cases  even  less." 

In  corroboration  of  this  protest  of  the  farmer  a  milk 
specialist  of  the  United  States  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture writes:— 

If  the  dairy  farmers  of  this  country  were  asked  this  ques- 
tion, "What  can  be  done  to  encourage  the  production  of 
clean  milk?"  I  am  sure  that  nearly  all  would  answer,  "Se- 
cure better  prices  and  markets  for  our  product."  There- 
fore, the  conditions  as  they  exist  to-day  are  these:  many 
dairymen  do  not  receive  enough  for  their  product  to  warrant 
any  extensive  changes  or  outlay,  and  many  dairymen  who 


THE  CASE  TO-DAY 


47 


OF    Ml  LK  at  RAIL 
IMTO    MILWAUKEE 

DURING  NORMAL  SEASON 


FIG.  10.  TYPICAL  MILKSHEDS 

(f)  Milwaukee  (1911).  This  chart  represents  only  milk  shipped  by 
rail;  about  as  much  again  is  brought  in  by  wagon.  (Bulletin  13, 
Milwaukee  Bureau  of  Efficiency  and  Economy,  1912.) 


48  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

are  paying  no  particular  attention  to  better  milk  are  receiv- 
ing the  same  price  for  their  milk  as  those  who  are  trying  to 
market  a  clean,  safe  product.  This  state  of  affairs,  one  can 
readily  see,  does  not  encourage  clean  milk  production;  how- 
ever, we  must  work  with  the  facts  as  they  are.  If  we  expect 
the  farmers  to  produce  better  milk,  we  must  assist  them  to 
receive  a  reasonable  profit  for  their  labor. 

In  some  sections  of  the  country,  dairymen  state  that  the 
price  received  for  milk  is  not  sufficient  to  warrant  their 
staying  in  the  business.  If  it  were  not  for  the  value  the  cows 
are  to  the  farm,  more  dairymen  would  stop  milking  them, 
and  take  up  some  other  line  of  agriculture.  The  question 
of  prices  and  profit  is  a  problem  which  we  must  meet.  .  .  .4 

Undoubtedly  the  economic  pressure  upon  the  dairy 
farmer  is  heavy,  but  the  question  how  far  his  com- 
plaint on  this  score  is  justified  and  what  the  remedy  is 
must  be  left  for  consideration  in  a  later  chapter. 

A  contributing  cause  to  the  farmer's  disquietude  is 
his  frequent  ignorance  and  distrust  of  bacteriology 
and  sanitary  science.  The  ultraconservative  farmer 
is  apt  to  consider  measures  of  milk  sanitation  as  mere 
theory,  as  hobbies  of  the  doctor  or  fads  of  the  health 
officer.  We  cannot,  of  course,  expect  farmers  to  be 
versed  in  sanitary  bacteriology,  but  we  can  expect 
them  to  so  appreciate  its  aims  as  to  act  intelligently 
for  the  attainment  of  these. 

The  farmer  often  bespeaks  consideration  of  the 
hardships  that  beset  his  mode  of  life,  with  the  plea 
that  no  further  demands  should  be  made  upon  him 
without  corresponding  additional  compensation.  Here 
is  a  typical  example,  taken  from  the  letter  of  a  dairy- 
man to  a  Massachusetts  newspaper: — 


THE  CASE  TO-DAY  49 

Look  at  his  [the  milkman's]  duties.  Up  in  the  morning 
around  two  o'clock  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  in  the 
year;  hustling  to  get  the  milk  to  his  customers.  He  finally 
arrives  home  at  eleven  o'clock.  Then  comes  the  washing 
and  sterilizing  of  bottles,  cans,  and  utensils  used.  Then  a 
late  dinner,  the  teams  to  care  for,  the  surrounding  country 
gone  over  to  collect  the  milk  for  next  day.  By  the  time  it  is 
all  in,  bottled,  and  iced  for  next  morning's  trade,  it  is  perhaps 
nine  o'clock.  Hurry  to  bed,  for  two  o'clock  soon  arrives, 
rain  or  shine.  It  has  to  go;  no  holidays  or  Sundays  here. 
Where  is  the  new  cow  coming  from  to  take  the  place  of  the 
old  one  when  she  is  gone?  The  blacksmith  had  a  much 
larger  bill  the  past  six  months;  the  milkmen  are  robbing  the 

good  people  of —  by  asking  them  six  cents  a  quart  for 

milk  when  they  should  get  ten  cents,  its  value. 

Why  are  so  many  dairy  farmers  going  out  of  business, 
five  in  our  neighborhood  in  the  past  two  years?  A  sixth 
one  goes  next  month,  myself.  At  a  cent  a  quart  increase  in 
wholesale  price  over  four  years  ago  I  cannot  make  both  ends 
meet  in  the  milk  business  at  the  present  cost  of  production. 
You  people  who  think  you  are  being  imposed  on  better  go 
dairy  farming  a  while. 

The  kind  of  complaint  of  which  this  is  representa- 
tive, whether  coming  from  the  farmer-retailer  or  the 
farmer  who  sells  to  a  middleman  dealer,  cannot  be  dis- 
missed without  consideration.  Its  economic  basis  will 
be  examined  in  a  later  chapter.  That  it  denotes  the 
attitude  of  many  farmers,  an  attitude  which  must  be 
taken  into  account  in  any  practical  examination  of 
the  milk  question,  is  the  point  for  present  marking. 
Altogether,  the  disadvantages  of  the  farmer  are  many, 
and  his  pleas  demand  the  attention  of  reasonable  men. 
"The  dairyman,"  as  one  of  them  puts  it,  "is  trying  to 


50  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

make  a  decent  living  in  a  legitimate  way,  is  not  trying 
to  poison  anybody,  and  does  not  like  to  be  forced  out 
of  business  nor  to  sell  out  to  a  trust.  He  does  not  want 
to  raise  the  price  of  milk,  and  will  only  do  so  when 
forced  to."  If  he  is  averse  to  altering  his  methods, 
tradition  and  lack  of  information  are  largely  to  blame. 
The  case  is  well  put  by  Rosenau: — 

The  attitude  of  the  farmer  is  often  unfortunate,  but  he 
cannot  be  blamed  for  getting  out  of  patience  with  the  sub- 
ject. He  is  made  the  butt  of  the  cartoonists  and  is  hammered 
at  from  all  sides.  He  is  inspected  and  reinspected,  preached 
to,  lectured  at,  scolded,  and  the  object  of  legal  action.  He 
is  pestered  with  the  enthusiast,  the  reformer,  the  sanitarian, 
the  lawyer,  the  baby's  mother,  and  the  baby's  doctor.  He 
is  showered  with  advice,  some  of  it  contradictory.  In  this 
predicament  he  does  not  know  which  way  to  turn.  If  the 
attitude  of  the  farmer  is  often  unfortunate,  the  attitude 
towards  the  farmer  is  frequently  equally  unfortunate.  Too 
often  he  is  regarded  as  a  back  number,  unprogressive,  in- 
competent, and  even  dishonest.  As  a  class  no  finer  stock 
is  to  be  found  in  the  world  than  the  sons  of  the  soil.  The  city 
replenishes  its  worn-out  and  effete  inhabitants  with  the 
brawn,  brain,  and  character  of  the  country  boy  and  girl. 
The  harsh,  arbitrary  methods  sometimes  directed  against 
the  farmer  are  not  only  unjustified,  but  delay  and  complicate 
the  solution  of  the  milk  question.  Much  quicker  progress 
will  be  made  through  mutual  respect,  a  helpful  attitude,  and 
a  certain  amount  of  patience  necessary  for  all  large  sanitary 
reforms.5 

The  dairy  farmer  is  pressed  by  the  health  authorities 
for  better  quality  of  milk  and  by  the  dealer  for  mini- 
mum prices.  He  is  not  a  recalcitrant;  he  is  as  glad  to 


THE  CASE  TO-DAY  51 

help  "save  the  babies"  as  anyone  else,  but  he  must 
live.  In  many  districts  dairy  farmers  are  in  fact 
going  out  of  business.  Yet  the  milk  supply  must  not 
only  be  kept  up  but  be  increased.  The  well-being  of 
the  farmer  is  necessary  to  that  of  society,  and  the 
maladjustment  of  the  conditions  under  which  he 
operates  must  be  corrected. 

The  Farmers'  Need  of  Organization 

The  one  conspicuous  feature  in  the  situation  of  the 
farmer  is  his  lack  of  organization.  In  his  relations 
with  dealers  and  railroads  he  is  at  a  great  disadvantage 
in  his  inability  to  bargain  collectively.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  he  is  at  the  mercy  of  shrewd  price-setting  milk- 
buyers.  If  he  carries  on  his  business  as  an  individual 
he  is  unable  either  to  recognize  the  true  nature  of  the 
conditions  which  he  shares  with  other  dairymen  or  to 
act  effectively  to  secure  his  due.  Organization  among 
farmers  would  alter  the  whole  situation.  Such  or- 
ganization would  first  of  all  protect  and  advance  the 
farmers'  collective  interests,  and  might  then  perhaps 
proceed  to  such  constructive  work  as  the  establish- 
ment of  co-operative  creameries  and,  in  co-operation 
with  agricultural  authorities,  the  improvement  of 
dairying  methods  and  of  agriculture  in  general. 

Farmers'  organizations  now  exist,  to  be  sure,  but 
these  have  not,  in  general,  been  sufficiently  close-knit 
and  active  to  produce  much  impression  on  the  situa- 
tion. Collective  action  has  been  spasmodic,  short- 
sighted, unsystematic,  accompanied  by  no  continuous 
grip  on  affairs.  Too  many  farmers  have  " stayed  out." 
The  farmer  is  by  nature  a  conservative  and  an  in- 


52  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

dividualist,  too  ready  to  tolerate  disadvantages.  But 
if  he  is  to  hold  his  own  under  modern  competitive 
conditions,  he  must,  as  a  class,  learn  the  lesson  of  or- 
ganization and  collective  action.  Signs  of  a  changing 
attitude  are  to  be  seen,  as,  for  example,  in  the  present 
efforts  of  organized  producers  in  New  England  and  the 
New  York  district  to  secure  better  milk  prices  (see 
Appendix  E),  but  there  is  much  to  do  in  this  direction 
if  the  individual  farmer  is  not  to  continue  to  be  forced 
out  of  business  as  a  milk  producer  under  present-day 
pressing  conditions. 

The  sympathies  of  a  disinterested  observer  would 
likely  be  with  the  consumer,  who  is  in  darkness,  and 
with  the  farmer,  who  suffers  most  under  economic 
pressure.  But  the  difference  is  that  the  consumer  must 
look  to  the  authorities  for  his  protection,  while  the 
farmer  can,  if  he  will,  better  his  own  conditions. 

Agricultural  Aid 

The  chief  external  reliance  of  the  fanner  for  the 
improvement  of  his  status  must  be  the  agricultural 
authorities  who  are  studying  his  problems  on  scientific 
principles.  State  and  Federal  departments, of  agricul- 
ture with  their  experiment  stations,  not  to  mention 
various  agricultural  colleges,  are  constantly  carrying  on 
investigations  and  publishing  data  and  advice  of  ad- 
vantage to  the  farmer.  A  great  deal  of  this  work  is 
specialized  on  the  dairy  industry.  The  following  para- 
graph by  Mr.  H.  N.  Parker  sketches  the  part  played 
by  such  authorities: — 

The  agricultural  experiment  stations  naturally  see  the 
farmer's  position  and,  perhaps,  only  less  clearly,  the  con- 


THE  CASE  TO-DAY  53 

tractor's.  For  years  station  men  have  been  collecting  data 
on  dairying.  They  know,  as  no  one  else  does,  that  the 
modern  dairy  farmer  has  large  sums  of  money  invested  in 
his  business  and  that  he  must  be  a  highly  trained  man  in 
order  to  succeed.  They  appreciate  fully  that  the  profits  in 
dairying  are  not  easy  and  that  only  careful  management  can 
reap  them.  Consequently,  the  stations  have  labored  zeal- 
ously to  get  dairymen  to  adopt  economical  rations,  to  weed 
out  non-productive  or  robber  cows,  to  pay  attention  to 
breeding,  and  to  be  biologically  clean,  so  that  the  products 
may  be  wholesome  and  of  good  flavor.  .  .  .  They  know 
that  dairying  must  pay  a  reasonable  profit  to  be  sound, 
hence  the  stations  have  tried  to  make  the  dairymen  efficient 
and  have  protested  when  regulations  have  been  proposed 
that  sounded  good  and  entailed  expense,  but  yielded  no 
adequate  benefit.  The  work  of  the  stations  will  grow  in 
importance,  for  at  present  it  is  the  hope  of  improving  farm 
conditions  that  holds  out  the  brightest  prospect  for  a  solution 
of  the  milk  question.6 

One  cannot  expect  that  farmers  will  become  agricul- 
tural experts  overnight.  Nevertheless,  efficient  farm 
management  has  a  prime  part  to  play  in  solving  the 
milk  problem,  and  there  is  substantial  truth  in  the  fore- 
going estimate  of  the  role  of  agricultural  authorities. 
Farming  is  not  yet,  for  the  many,  a  technological 
calling,  but  it  is  a  trade  demanding  knowledge  of 
scientific  and  business  principles.  It  may  be  that 
agriculture  will  of  economic  necessity  follow  the  mod- 
ern trend  and  become  as  specialized  as  manufac- 
turing. But  that  is,  for  the  present,  a  development 
which  interests  only  the  comparatively  few  of  special 
training  and  enterprise.  Meanwhile  the  ordinary 
farmer  must  make  the  progress  that  is  within  his 


54  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

power,  in  which  endeavor  his  chief  advisers  must  be 
the  agricultural  authorities  and  many  of  his  best  text- 
books will  be  their  bulletins.  It  rests  with  himself  as 
to  whether  he  will  take  advantage  of  his  opportunities. 

THE  POSITION  OF  THE  DEALER 

The  modern  development  of  the  milk  business  has 
brought  into  existence  a  highly  important  factor — 
the  person  or  concern  known  variously  as  the  middle- 
man, distributer,  retailer,  contractor,  or  dealer.  He  is 
the  successor  of  the  farmer-retailer  who  enlarges  his 
business  by  collecting  and  selling  milk  from  his  neigh- 
bors, but  is  a  different  type  in  that  he  is  distinctly  a 
business  man.  He  occupies  to-day,  in  the  larger  cities, 
the  central  position  in  the  milk  situation.  Reaching 
far  out  into  the  country  districts  by  means  of  the  rail- 
roads, collecting  and  distributing  on  a  large  scale,  he 
connects,  at  the  same  time  that  he  separates,  producer 
and  consumer.  This  middleman  business  involves 
large  investments  of  capital  and  is  one  of  the  "big 
businesses"  of  to-day. 

In  milk  controversies  in  the  large  cities  it  is  the  mid- 
dleman who  seems  to  hold  the  key  to  the  situation. 
Under  ordinary  conditions  he  virtually  sets  both  the 
price  paid  to  the  producer  and  the  price  to  be  charged 
the  customer,  and  he  will  not  readily  make  concessions 
at  either  end.  Being  a  better  business  man  than  the 
farmer,  it  is  natural  to  infer  that  he  reaps  the  lion's 
share  of  the  profits. 

In  certain  respects,  this  concentration  of  the  milk 
business  is,  as  Rosenau  points  out,  an  advantage.  It 
makes  for  economic  efficiency  and  at  the  same  time 


THE  CASE  TO-DAY  55 

tends  to  simplify  sanitary  supervision.  Certain  large 
dealers,  recognizing  the  necessity  of  sanitation,  have 
co-operated  in  the  efforts  of  the  health  authorities  and 
have  established  laboratories  and  inspection  systems 
of  their  own.  Such  measures  are  not  philanthropic, 
but  have  been  undertaken  as  good  business  manage- 
ment and  in  the  desire  to  maintain  a  good  standing. 
In  the  same  way  some  have  established  bonuses  for 
milk  produced  under  superior  sanitary  conditions. 
Milk-borne  disease  is  a  bugbear  of  the  large  dealer 
and,  to  avoid  it,  he  has  been  willing  to  go  to  consider- 
able trouble  and  expense  and  to  adopt  pasteurization 
and  other  precautions.  The  reputable  dealer  wel- 
comes better  conditions  in  the  milk  industry,  but  he 
is  not  to  be  expected  to  go  to  extra  expense  that  will 
place  him  at  a  disadvantage  with  his  competitor.  In 
fact  the  progressive,  fair-minded  dealer  will  co-operate 
in  sanitary  improvements,  but  naturally  only  so  far  as 
they  are  required  by  authority,  or  at  least  where  they 
do  not  conflict  with  his  interest  as  a  business  man. 

In  relation  to  the  farmer,  the  point  of  vantage  of  the 
middleman  lends  itself  to  price-squeezing  in  the  pro- 
ducing districts.  Of  the  two  means  of  profit,  the  dealer 
finds  it  easier  to  keep  down  the  price  paid  to  the  farmer 
than  to  raise  the  price  received  from  the  consumer. 
The  producers  in  a  given  district  may  complain,  but, 
unless  they  are  organized,  they  must  either  take  the 
price  offered  by  the  dealer  who  collects  in  that  district, 
or  none. 

It  is  no  doubt  to  the  advantage  of  the  middleman 
to  discourage  agitation  regarding  conditions  in  which 
he  holds  the  balance  of  power.  Nevertheless,  the 


56  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

situation  in  some  quarters  has  reached  such  a  pass  that 
the  abolition  of  the  middleman  through  the  establish- 
ment of  farmers'  co-operative  selling  or  through  other 
co-operative  or  municipalization  plans  is  being  seriously 
discussed.  But  this  leads  us  to  considerations  which 
must  be  postponed  to  later  chapters. 

RAILROADS:   THE   TRANSPORTATION 
PROBLEM 

A  special  matter  which  calls  for  attention  in  con- 
nection with  the  milk  supplies  of  large  cities  is  railroad 
transportation.  Wherever  milk  is  brought  by  rail  from 
long  distances  special  sanitary  precautions  are  neces- 
sary, principally  with  regard  to  refrigeration,  while 
the  railroads  find  it  necessary  to  institute  divisions  of 
milk  transportation  with  provisions  for  special  cars, 
fast  milk  trains,  depots,  etc.  The  Pennsylvania  Rail- 
road, for  example,  a  few  months  ago  purchased  at  a 
reported  expense  of  $300,000  thirty-six  refrigerator 
cars  to  carry  milk  from  northwestern  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania  into  the  cities  of  Philadelphia,  Brooklyn, 
Baltimore,  and  Jersey  City,  the  amount  carried  at 
that  time  being  265,000  quarts  per  day.  These  cars 
have  a  capacity  of  12,000  quarts  each,  and  brine  and 
cold  air  facilities  for  holding  the  temperature  down 
to  40°  F. 

The  transportation  problem  has  appeared  in  acute 
form  in  certain  regions.  The  question  of  rates  has 
been  taken  up  by  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion, which  has  held  hearings,  e.  g.  (in  1916)  in  Boston 
and  Philadelphia.  The  complex  situation  in  New 
England  has  also  been  made  the  subject  of  investiga- 


THE  CASE  TO-DAY  57 

tion  by  the  Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce  (see  Ap- 
pendix E).  Such  investigations  run  into  complications 
as  to  systems  and  rates  which  it  is  impossible  to  discuss 
here. 

It  is,  of  course,  difficult  to  say  to  just  what  extent 
the  transportation  question  enters  into  the  general 
milk  problem,  but  it  evidently  constitutes  one  phase, — 
a  phase,  moreover,  which  is  used  as  a  background  for 
exhibiting  miscellaneous  difficulties  and  grievances. 

It  is  worth  noting,  in  passing,  that,  while  suspicion 
has  fallen  upon  " railroad  milk/'  still,  with  the  growth 
of  cities,  the  milk  supply  must  be  drawn  from  greater 
and  greater  distances.  Fortunately  it  is  possible  so 
to  compensate  for  distance  by  means  of  proper  precau- 
tions that  a  sanitary  milk  from  two  hundred  miles 
away  may  be  better  and  safer  than  one  produced 
near  by  but  subject  to  unfavorable  conditions.  The 
final  quality  of  the  product  is  the  criterion. 

THE  ATTITUDE  OF  THE  CONSUMER 

The  attitude  of  the  consumer  is,  on  the  whole,  nega- 
tive. As  one  health  official  puts  it,  "Milk  is  milk  to 
the  average  consumer.  A  white  fluid  in  a  bottle,  with 
a  cream  line,  is  about  all  he  seems  to  be  interested  in." 
The  agitation  on  the  milk  question  is  not  carried  on 
by  the  many  but  by  the  very  few  who  have  interested 
themselves  and  formed  "consumers'  associations" 
and  the  like.  The  great  majority  demand  only  a  suf- 
ficient appearance  of  cream  and  the  absence  of  ob- 
viously visible  dirt,  and  are  aroused  only  by  an  in- 
creased price. 

This  attitude  is  unfortunate  when  there  comes  ques- 


58  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

tion  of  sanitary  measures  for  which  public  support  is 
required.    One  authority  goes  so  far  as  to  say: — 

Probably  the  chief  obstacle  .  .  .  lies  at  the  consumer's 
end  of  the  problem.  ...  It  is  still  unusual  to  find  even 
educated  people  willing  to  pay  a  cent  a  quart  more  for  good 
milk  when  they  find  they  can  get  an  ordinary  kind  cheap. 
If  the  public  can  only  be  brought  to  appreciate  the  fact 
that  it  is  cheaper  to  pay  a  little  extra  for  a  good  quality  than 
to  pay  less  for  a  poorer  grade  of  milk,  a  great  reform  can  be 
rapidly  brought  about.  The  question  whether  the  milk 
supply  can  be  generally  improved  depends  thus  upon  the 
consumer.  .  .  .  This  reform  will  come  just  as  soon  as  the 
public  is  ready  for  it,  and  that  will  be  just  as  soon  as  the 
consumer  is  ready  to  pay  for  quality.7 

In  a  city  which  was  attempting  to  enforce  a  tuber- 
culin-test ordinance,  users  of  milk  informed  the  health 
authorities:— 

They  •  could  see  no  difference  between  the  milk  from  a 
tuberculin-tested  herd  and  the  milk  from  an  untested  herd. 
They  have  explained  that  the  cream  line  was  no  lower,  that 
the  milk  tasted  no  differently,  and  that  they  could  see  no 
excuse  for  paying  a  higher  price  for  such  milk.  This  attitude, 
more  or  less  exaggerated,  was  apparent  and  general  and  of 
course  makes  for  the  defeat  of  a  provision  like  that  requiring 
the  test.  The  dealer  can  quite  safely  oppose  any  require- 
ment until  the  public  demands  it.8 

There  is  this,  however,  to  be  said  for  the  consumer: 
that  his  inability  to  judge  or  control  conditions  nat- 
urally makes  him  passive.  His  unwillingness  to  pay 
more  for  milk  is  not  unjustifiable  if  he  has  no  way  of 
knowing  that  the  quality  is  actually  better.  Far  from 
expecting  the  consumer  to  take  a  direct  hand  in  the 


THE  CASE  TO-DAY  59 

matter,  one  should  look  to  health  authorities  and 
legislatures  to  perform  their  duty  in  ensuring  that 
his  welfare  is  protected.  On  this  score  he  often  has 
good  ground  for  complaint  in  that  even  the  most  in- 
telligent inquiring  citizens  often  find  great  difficulty 
in  making  out  what  the  local  milk  situation  is  or  which 
supplies  are  most  worthy  of  patronage. 

A  great  deal  has  been  said  about  educating  the  pub- 
he  to  demand  better  milk  at  a  just  price,  and  the 
stimulation  of  such  a  demand  is,  to  be  sure,  a  good 
thing.  But  the  best  intentions  of  the  consumer  are 
ineffectual  unless  the  public  health  authorities  so  deal 
with  the  situation  as  to  make  discrimination  by  the 
citizen  simple  and  direct.  As  to  the  means  of  doing 
this,  more  will  be  said  later. 

THE  PHYSICIAN 

The  medical  profession  has  played  a  large  part  in  the 
promotion  of  the  sanitary  milk  movement, — most  def- 
initely through  the  development  of  certified  milk.  It  is 
the  medical  observer  to  whom  we  turn  for  knowledge  of 
the  relation  of  milk  to  the  individual.  In  the  case  of 
the  infant,  the  invalid,  the  convalescent,  the  doctor's 
choice  of  milk  is  important,  and  regulation  of  milks 
must  therefore  harmonize  with  medical  requirements. 

UNOFFICIAL  ORGANIZATIONS 

An  important  part  has  been  played  by  unofficial 
organizations  of  public-spirited  citizens  and  even  by 
individuals.  Civic  bodies,  such  as  women's  clubs,  have 
done  much  in  stimulating  the  public  sentiment  which 


60  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

is  a  necessary  preliminary  to  and  power  behind  effective 
legislation.  Milk  distribution  from  infants7  milk 
depots  has  been  a  useful  constructive  activity.*  In 
many  ways  such  bodies  have  encouraged  and  supported 
health  authorities,  and  they  will  continue  to  do  so. 

THE  LEGISLATOR:   MILK  AS  A   POLITICAL 

ISSUE 

Milk  figures  not  infrequently  as  a  political  issue. 
A  chapter  might  be  written  on  milk  in  politics;  it 
would,  however,  be  more  confusing  than  illuminating. 
An  already  contradictory  subject  is  further  compli- 
cated by  the  partisans  of  special  interests.  Legislators 
are  too  apt  to  aim  at  something  less  than  a  general 
solution  of  the  problem.  Some  seek  to  gain  favor  with 
the  city  voter  by  "pure  milk  bills,"  while  others  score 
with  the  farmers  by  their  opposition  to  such  bills.  All 
this  is  unfortunate  in  its  confusing  and  obstructional 
effect,  but  it  has,  at  the  same  time,  brought  out  the 
importance  of  the  whole  question  with  its  several  sides. 
It  has  shown  the  necessity  of,  first,  unbiased  legislation 
and,  secondly,  non-partisan  administration  of  milk 
laws. 

Clarification  of  the  whole  matter  will,  it  scarcely 
need  be  said,  tend  to  remove  it  from  political  entangle- 
ment. Further,  as  regards  the  interpretation  of  milk 
laws  by  the  courts,  the  adjustment  of  values  is  neces- 
sary as  the  basis  of  right  decisions. 

*  It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  the  distribution  of  milk  is  now 
considered  by  no  means  the  most  important  part  of  milk  station  or 
infant  welfare  work.  (See  pp.  20-21,  87-88.) 


THE  CASE  TO-DAY  61 


RELATIVE  IMPORTANCE  OF  MILK  CONTROL 

The  question  may  well  be  raised  as  to  the  exact  im- 
portance of  milk  control  in  the  general  sanitary  field. 
Until  recently  no  idea  at  all  definite  was  to  be  had  of 
this,  but  a  tentative  scale  of  relative  values  in  public 
health  work  has  been  published  by  Dr.  Charles  V. 
Chapin,9  Superintendent  of  Health  of  Providence,  R.  I., 
in  which,  on  a  scale  of  100,  a  value  of  8  was  assigned  to 
milk  supervision.  Dr.  Chapin,  hi  a  revision  of  the  scale, 
has  since,  however,  reduced  his  estimation  of  the  milk 
figure  to  2  per  cent  (sanitation,  1.7;  adulteration,  0.3). 10 
A  similar  scale  has  been  worked  out  by  Franz  Schneider, 
Jr.,11  of  the  Department  of  Surveys  and  Exhibits  of 
the  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  assigning  to  milk  control 
the  value  of  2.7  per  cent.  These  figures,  though  tenta- 
tive, tend  to  indicate  that  the  relative  sanitary  im- 
portance of  milk  control  is  not  so  great  as  has  perhaps 
been  generally  supposed.  It  must  be  considered,  how- 
ever, that  the  economic  difficulties  and  demoralization 
of  the  vast  dairy  industry  contribute  greatly  to  the 
present  importance  of  the  milk  problem  as  a  whole. 

CONCLUSION:  THE  STATE  OF  THE  CASE 

The  present  status  of  the  milk  question  as  outlined 
in  the  foregoing  pages  may  be  briefly  characterized  as 
follows: — 

1.  The  problem  is  both  sanitary  and  economic.  It 
involves  the  all-important  question  of  health  versus 
dollars — Will  the  consumer  pay  for  sanitary  milk?— 
and  the  correlative  one:  How,  otherwise,  is  the  dairy- 


62  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

man  to  make  a  living  by  producing  it?  Also  the  further 
one:  How  can  sanitary  milk  be  produced  and  distributed 
most  economically? 

2.  It  arises  from  the  separation  of  producer  and  con- 
sumer and  from  the  complexities  necessited  by  urban 
development.    It  is  characteristic  of  centers  of  popula- 
tion and  tends  to  become  more  acute  the  larger  these 
centers  and  the  greater  and  more  distant  the  territory 
from  which  the  milk  supply  is  drawn.    At  the  same 
time  all  milk  supplies,  under  whatever  conditions  and 
in  all  communities,  are  subject  to  the  same  funda- 
mental sanitary  considerations;  hence  even  compara- 
tively small  communities  may  have  more  or  less  of  a 
milk  problem. 

3.  A  practical  difficulty  hi  its  solution  is  that  several 
distinct  and  important  parties  are  concerned  in  the  case: 
not  only  must  the  sanitarian,  the  health  official,  and 
the  consumer  be  heard,  but  also  the  producer  and  the 
distributer.    Hence  there  is  always  debate,  often  con- 
troversy, and  sometimes  a  "milk  muddle."    The  task 
is  to  get  the  facts  free  from  the  coloring  of  special  in- 
terests and  prejudices  and  do  justice  to  all  parties. 

At  a  recent  Federal  hearing  in  New  England  the 
following  statement,  -summarizing  the  acute  phase  of 
the  matter,  was  made  by  a  representative  of  large 
milk  interests: — 

An  important  point  which  Mr.  made,  under  cross- 
examination  by  Attorney-General ,  was  that  the  great 

milk  problem,  both  in  regard  to  cleanliness  and  price,  is 
pressing  for  a  solution;  and  whether  it  is  solved  now  or 
later,  the  agitation  by  the  public  will  continue  until  the 
solution  is  reached  and  the  matter  is  settled  once  for  all  on  a 


THE  CASE  TO-DAY  63 

basis  fair  alike  to  producer,  shipper,  and  consumer.  Milk, 
the  witness  said,  is  so  vital  to  a  large  part  of  any  metro- 
politan community  that  in  some  degree  it  may  not  be  too 
much  to  say  that  life  depends  upon  it — and  a  matter  so 
close  to  the  life  of  the  community  enforces  constant  at- 
tention.12 

In  the  following  chapters  the  aim  will  be  to  outline 
the  measures  of  sanitary  control,  to  show  wherein 
previous  and  present  regulation  is  inadequate,  to  set 
forth  the  general  economic  considerations,  and  to  de- 
duce the  main  principles  of  equitable  adjustment. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  SANITARY  FACTORS 

With  a  view  to  indicating  the  present  status  of  the 
sanitary  control  of  milk  supplies,  we  may  now  con- 
sider briefly  each  of  the  means  of  control.  These  are 
directed  toward  attainment  of  the  general  ideal  set 
down  at  the  close  of  Chapter  I. 

The  subjects  will  be  treated  in  the  following  pages 
in  the  order,  roughly,  of  chronological  development. 
There  will  be  seen  a  gradual  evolution  in  regard  to 
the  point  of  attack.  The  earliest  regulation  was  di- 
rected at  preventing  adulteration;  in  the  next  stage  the 
conditions  under  which  it  was  produced  and  handled 
received  most  attention;  recent  developments  have  cen- 
tered about  the  sanitary  quality  of  the  product  as  de- 
termined by  laboratory  methods  and  about  the  specific 
treatment  known  as  pasteurization.  The  development 
has  not  been,  however,  clearly  defined,  and  the  regula- 
tions of  the  present  day  are  a  mixture  of  the  ideas  of  all 
the  stages.  The  present-day  task  of  sanitation  is  to 
assign  to  each  of  these  ideas  its  proper  weight. 

Early  Developments 

We  shall  not  here  go  into  the  history  of  milk  regula- 
tion except  as  it  has  a  direct  bearing  upon  still  surviving 
traditions.  This,  however,  is  by  no  means  a  negligible 
consideration,  for  in  control  of  milk  supplies,  as  in 

64 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  65 

other  branches  of  sanitary  endeavor,  the  inertia  of  tra- 
ditional ideas  and  routine  has  been  great.  To-day  there 
may  be  seen  the  most  advanced  and  promising  ideas  in 
operation  side  by  side  with  the  archaic — the  latter  still 
largely  prevailing. 

To  find  the  beginnings  of  milk  supply  control  hi 
the  United  States  in  anything  resembling  the  modern 
sense,  we  must  go  back  some  twenty-five  or  thirty 
years.  The  following  passage  from  a  paper  by  Mr. 
H.  W.  Parker  epitomizes  those  beginnings:— 

Most  people  think  that  the  milk  question  is  new  in  America, 
that  it  appeared  not  over  twenty  years  ago,  but  really  it 
began  to  make  itself  felt  in  the  big  cities  at  an  earlier  period. 
Thus,  in  1859  the  office  of  milk  inspector  was  established  in 
Boston;  in  1870  the  Board  of  Health  of  Providence  investi- 
gated the  milk  supply  of  that  city;  and  in  1871  the  board 
of  health  of  Washington  looked  into  that  of  the  Federal  city. 
But  in  a  sense  the  public  is  right,  for  the  regular  collection 
and  analysis  of  milk  samples  did  not  become  common  in 
American  cities  until  the  period  from  1885  to  1890.*  It 
seems  probable  that  about  this  time  the  family  cow  disap- 
peared and  dairymen  found  it  necessary  to  locate  so  far 
from  their  trade  that  they  found  it  difficult  to  deliver  milk 
in  good  condition  and  had  lost  personal  contact  with  their 
customers.1 

The  efforts  at  this  time  were  very  largely  directed 
against  watering,  skimming,  and  other  forms  of  adul- 
teration or  sophistication,  which  were  very  common  at 
the  time.  This  work  was  certainly  necessary,  and  still 

*  Sedgwick  and  Batchelder's  work,  mentioned  below,  indicates,  how- 
ever, that  the  beginnings  of  bacteriological  control  were  somewhat 
later.— J.  S.  M. 


66  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

has  a  justified  place  in  the  supervision  of  milk  supplies. 
But,  owing  to  the  work  of  the  past,  heavy  penalties, 
and  the  ease  with  which  adulteration  and  the  use  of 
preservatives  can  be  detected,  the  period  of  extensive 
adulteration  is  over,  and  the  matter  is  now  one  of  little 
significance.  It  has  always  been,  too,  a  question  of 
fraud  rather  than  of  health.* 

The  logical  development  of  these  early  efforts  at 
milk  control  was  the  adoption  of  chemical  standards, 
which  will  be  considered  later. 

THE   BEGINNINGS   OF    THE   CLEAN  MILK 
MOVEMENT 

For  many  years  milk  supply  reform  was  summed  up 
hi  the  movement  for  "  clean  milk,"  which  may  be  de- 
fined as  milk  from  healthy  cows,  handled  throughout 
under  sanitary  conditions  to  be  obtained  by  means  of 
inspection.  Bacteriological  examination  became  its 
indispensable  gauge,  and  later  there  was  added  to  the 
ideal  the  tuberculin  test  for  dairy  cows.  Under  the 
influence  of  the  movement  the  dairy  score  card  for  in- 
spection developed.  This  was  an  ideal  of  fresh  raw 
milk;  hence  many  of  its  adherents,  until  recently  at 
least,  have  minimized  or  opposed  pasteurization,  thus 
giving  rise  to  a  controversy,  now  largely  adjusted  to 
which  we  shall  again  allude  under  the  latter  head. 

Attention  was  drawn  to  milk  as  a  vehicle  of  infec- 
tion, through  a  study,  laid  before  the  International 
Medical  Congress  of  1881  by  Mr.  Ernest  Hart,  sum- 

*  Dr.  Charles  V.  Chapin,  in  a  recently  devised  scale  of  sanitary  values 
totalling  100,  assigns  to  milk  adulteration  a  value  of  but  0.3.  (See 
p.  61.) 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  67 

marizing  sixty-nine  epidemics  which  had  already  been 
charged  to  milk.2  The  sanitary  importance  of  con- 
tamination in  general  was  later  brought  out  strikingly 
by  Sedgwick  and  Batchelder,3  who  in  1892  published 
the  results  of  a  bacteriological  examination  of  the 
Boston  milk  supply.  This  seems  to  have  been  the 
earliest  recording  of  the  bacterial  content  of  the  milk 
of  an  American  city.  The  large  numbers  reported 
amazed  sanitarians  and  public.  The  modern  move- 
ment for  sanitary  milk  on  a  bacteriological  basis  ap- 
pears to  have  dated  from  this  time. 

Certified  Milk  4 

But  even  before  this,  important  action  was  under 
way  in  New  Jersey,  where  the  State  Medical  Society, 
with  the  object  of  improving  milk  production,  began, 
in  1889,  an  investigation  of  milk  supplies,  the  result  of 
which  was  an  appeal  to  the  State  for  strict  supervision 
of  all  the  dairies  within  its  limits.  This  appeal  failing, 
resort  was  had  to  an  original  expedient,  that  of  medical 
certification  of  milk,  and  in  1893  the  production  of  the 
first  "  certified  milk,"  under  the  supervision  of  a  med- 
ical milk  commission  organized  in  Essex  County,  in 
that  State,  took  place. 

Certified  milk  may  be  briefly  defined  as  milk  pro- 
duced under  the  strictest  sanitary  conditions  by  a  pro- 
ducer who  has  entered  into  an  agreement  with  a  med- 
ical milk  commission  by  which  he  stipulates  compliance 
with  the  commission's  requirements,  while  the  com- 
mission authorizes  the  use  of  its  certification.*  In 

*The  term  "certified  milk"  has  sometimes  been  abused  by  un- 
scrupulous dairymen,  but  has  been  legally  protected  in  a  number  of 


68  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

effect,  certified  milk  is  the  highest  quality  of  raw  milk, 
from  tuberculin-tested  cows,  the  bacteria  count  being 
limited  to  10,000  per  cubic  centimeter.  The  total 
production  of  certified  milk  is  estimated  at  25,000 
gallons  daily;  this,  however,  is  but  a  drop  in  the  bucket, 
for  even  in  the  large  cities  where  certified  milk  is  es- 
tablished it  constitutes  less  than  one  per  cent  of  the 
total  milk  supply. 

The  certified  milk  idea  was,  until  recent  years,  un- 
disputedly  predominant  in  the  clean  milk  movement 
and  so  has  served  its  purpose.  In  the  solution  of  the 
general  milk  problem,  however,  certified  milk  plays 
little  part.  Its  market  will  continue  to  be  restricted 
and  its  quantity  small  because  of  the  high  price  at 
which  it  must  be  sold,  and  vice  versa.  This  price  aver- 
ages 14  cents  as  against  an  average  for  ordinary  market 
milk  of  about  8  cents.  While  some  of  the  excess  may 
be  due  to  lack  of  business  methods  among  producers, 
it  is  chiefly  necessitated  by  the  expense  of  special  equip- 
ment and  methods  and  by  the  small  scale  of  production. 
It  is,  of  course,  true  that  if  certified  milk  were  more 
widely  used,  some  elements  in  its  cost — such  as  super- 
vision and  distribution — would  be  cheapened,  but  the 
price  must  evidently  always  be  decidedly  higher  than 
that  of  a  widely  used  market  milk. 

States.  On  the  part  of  the  medical  milk  commissions  the  object  is 
simply  to  insure,  through  special  encouragement,  a  clinically  satis- 
factory class  of  milk.  Over  sixty  commissions  have  been  established, 
though  nearly  one-third  of  the  number  have  become  inactive.  A 
general  organization  exists  in  the  American  Association  of  Medical 
Milk  Commissions,  which  has  formulated  methods  and  standards  for 
the  production  and  distribution  of  certified  milk.  The  producers  have 
also  organized  themselves  in  an  Association. 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  69 

The  general  practical  weakness  of  certified  milk  is 
that  it  demands  multifarious  precautions  to  obtain  a 
result  which,  as  we  shall  show  later,  appears  to  be 
obtainable  by  much  simpler  and  less  expensive  means. 

It  must  also  be  remarked  that  medical  milk  com- 
missions have  undertaken,  through  practical  exigency, 
a  function  of  supervision  which  properly  pertains  to 
the  public  health  authorities.  While  they  have  served, 
and  continue  to  serve,  a  useful  purpose,  it  is  a  fact  that, 
as  official  control  becomes  better  and  better  developed, 
the  value  of  such  unofficial  or  quasi-official  bodies 
diminishes  toward  the  vanishing  point.  It  is  simply 
an  evidence  of  deficient  development  in  public  health 
protection  that  in  many  communities  certified  milk 
is  the  only  milk  distinguished  as  a  standardized  class 
from  the  bulk  of  the  market  product,  and  that  in  many 
more  others  there  is  no  milk  at  all  of  such  definite  char- 
acterization. 

While  the  highest  ideal  of  clean  milk  has  been  at- 
tained in  certified  milk,  which  is  therefore  of  a  high 
degree  of  safety,  it  must  be  remembered  that  absolute 
freedom  from  possibility  of  infection  is  not  guaranteed 
by  this  ideal.  This,  as  we  shall  see  later,  is  the  general 
weakness  of  the  clean  milk  ideal;  no  milk,  even  the 
most  "  clean,"  can  be  called  perfectly  safe  that  has  not 
been  pasteurized. 

THE  GENERAL  CLEAN  MILK  MOVEMENT 

Certified  milk  established  a  standard  which  has 
been  the  ideal  of  the  whole  clean  milk  movement. 
This  movement,  originated  thus  by  unofficial  endeavor 
and  taken  up  by  health  authorities,  sought  to  attain 


70  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

its  aim  primarily  by  means  of  inspection,  the  results 
being  checked  up  by  bacteriological  examinations  of 
the  product.  A  later  development  was  the  tuberculin 
test,  which  will  be  discussed  further  on  in  this  chapter. 
Many  of  those  who  held  the  clean  milk  ideal  opposed 
pasteurization  as  an  undesirable  palliative  and  relied 
on  the  above  means  for  keeping  infection  out  of  milk 
so  that  the  protective  process  of  pasteurization  would 
not  be  necessary. 

In  practice  this  ideal  has  been  well  developed  by 
Richmond,  Va.,  Seattle,  Wash.,  Portand,  Ore.,  and 
Montclair,  N.  J.,  in  which  last  community  vigilant 
supervision  of  the  milk  supply  was  begun  with  a  re- 
organization of  the  health  department  which  -took 
place  shortly  after  the  establishment,  in  the  same 
State,  of  the  first  certified  milk  supply.  That  this 
reorganization  came  about  as  the  reaction  to  a  severe 
epidemic  of  typhoid  fever  is  an  indication  of  the  kind 
of  stimulus  sometimes  necessary  to  arouse  a  com- 
munity to  sanitary  reform. 

THE  SCORE-CARD  METHOD  OF  INSPECTION 

The  development  of  dairy  inspection  and  the  ten- 
dency to  standardize  its  methods  led  to  the  devising  of 
the  dairy  score  card,  which  deals  with  itemized  condi- 
tions each  of  which  is  given  a  mathematical  rating,  the 
total  number  of  points  for  a  perfect  dairy  being  100.* 

*  What  appears  to  have  been  the  earliest  dairy  score  card  was  intro- 
duced and  used  by  Dr.  Wm.  C.  Woodward,  Health  Officer  of  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  in  1904.  Since  that  time  a  number  of  different  cards 
have  been  devised  and  put  in  use,  and  the  idea  has  been  extended  to 
the  rating  of  milk  plants  and  stores  handling  milk  and  to  other  purposes. 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  71 

The  most  representative  of  the  various  cards  which 
have  been  devised  is  that  adopted  by  the  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture  in  concurrence  with  the 
National  Association  of  Dairy  Instructors  and  Investi- 
gators. The  most  important  feature  of  this  card  is  its 
separation  and  weighting  of  equipment  and  methods: 
to  the  former  a  total  of  40  points  is  allotted;  to  the 
latter,  60. 

The  score-card  method  has  been  commonly  ac- 
cepted as  the  standard  basis  of  inspection  and  record- 
ing, both  for  dairies  and  for  milk  plants.  Dairy  scores 
have  come  to  be  widely  taken  as  indicating,  at  least 
approximately,  the  quality  of  milk  produced  under 
the  given  conditions  and  are  frequently  published  as 
ratings  of  milk  supplies.  Score  requirements  have 
been  generally  incorporated  in  grading  systems  and, 
in  one  case  at  least  (New  York  State),  have  been  au- 
thorized as  a  sole  basis  of  grading.  The  exact  value  of 
the  score  card  demands,  therefore,  most  careful  con- 
sideration. 

The  Dairy  Score  Card  Under  Criticism 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  score  card  has  been  so 
unconsciously  accepted  as  a  sanitary  index  that  little 
attention  has  generally  been  paid  to  the  question  of 
the  exact  relation  between  dairy  scores  and  bacteria 
counts.*  Such  study  as  has  been  devoted  to  the  matter, 

*  Throughout  the  following  discussion  it  is  assumed  that  the  ordinary 
bacteria  count,  properly  performed  according  to  standard  methods,  is 
a  fairly  accurate  criterion  of  biological  cleanliness.  Discussion  of  the 
exact  merits  and  present  status  of  the  count  is  beyond  our  present 
scope.  See,  however,  paragraph  c,  p.  74,  and  notes  on  pp.  92,  94. 


72  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

however,  has  shown  results  highly  destructive  of  pre- 
conception. An  investigation  of  the  bacterial  count 
of  the  milk  from  34  commercial  dairies  and  their  scores 
as  determined  by  three  representative  cards — namely, 
the  Cornell  card,  the  United  States  (" Official")  card 
referred  to  above,  and  the  New  York  City  card — has 
recently  been  published  by  the  New  York  State  Agri- 
cultural Experiment  Station,  the  investigator  being 
James  D.  Brew.5  The  purpose  of  this  study  was  to 
determine  how  nearly  different  cards  agreed  when  the 
same  conditions  were  scored  simultaneously  by  the 
same  person  and  what  relation  existed  between  score 
and  bacteria  count  as  an  index  of  sanitary  quality. 
As  might  be  expected,  there  was  found  some  variation 
in  the  relative  positions  of  the  various  dairies  when 
scored  simultaneously  with  all  the  cards.  But  the 
striking  conclusion  derived  was  this: — 

The  results  of  the  investigation  show  no  correlation  whatever 
between  the  quality  of  the  milk  so  far  as  it  could  be  determined 
by  laboratory  methods  and  the  score  as  expressed  by  any  one  of 
these  three  cards. 

This  is  so  arresting  a  result  that  we  must  quote  fur- 
ther from  the  conclusions  of  the  investigator: — 

Milk  of  all  grades  ranging  from  the  finest  quality  to  the 
poorest,  is  produced  in  barns  which  would  be  excluded  on 
account  of  low  scores.  All  grades  of  milk  are  likewise  pro- 
duced in  the  high-scoring  barns. 

The  real  explanation  for  this  lack  of  relationship  between 
the  scores  and  the  bacteria  counts  cannot  be  given  as  yet 
with  absolute  certainty.  The  most  apparent  reason,  as 
shown  by  investigations  made  at  this  Station,  is  that  a 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  73 

large  number  of  the  items  included  on  the  score  card  have 
little  or  no  effect  upon  the  number  of  bacteria  present  in  the 
milk.  In  other  words,  too  great  emphasis  is  placed  upon 
unessential  factors  in  all  of  the  score  cards  studied,  with  a 
consequent  lessened  emphasis  upon  the  factors  which  ac- 
tually do  affect  the  milk. 

Some  may  contend  that  these  findings  encourage  the  pro- 
duction of  milk  under  filthy  conditions.  This  contention 
will  be  raised  only  by  those  who  hold  the  idea  that  low- 
scoring  dairies  are  necessarily  unsanitary  and  filthy.  Such 
conditions  have,  however,  not  been  found  to  hold  true  in  the 
region  studied  because  /ow-scoring  dairies  were  found  which 
vied  in  cleanliness  with  the  most  ideal  of  the  high-scoring 
dairies.  On  the  contrary,  however,  these  facts  give  decided 
encouragement  to  the  intelligent  dairyman  who  finds  that 
he  can  produce  high-grade  milk  by  the  simple  observation 
of  the  few  essential  factors  of  cleanliness  and  care.  This 
places  him  in  a  position  to  secure  a  greater  profit  from  his 
business  while  at  the  same  time  he  has  the  moral  satisfaction 
of  knowing  that  he  is  selling  a  high-grade  article.  Where 
the  present  score  cards  are  used,  all  dairies,  in  order  to  get 
credit  for  Grade  A  milk,*  are  forced  to  an  additional  expense 
and  consequently  to  an  increased  cost  of  production.  At 
the  same  time  a  compliance  with  the  score-card  requirements 
carries  with  it  no  guarantee  that  the  quality  of  milk  will  be 
improved  or  rendered  more  safe  from  the  standpoint  of 
public  health. 

The  fact  that  high-grade  milk  can  be  produced  with  simple 
equipment,  likewise  gives  encouragement  to  the  consumer 
who  is  as  much  interested  in  keeping  down  the  cost  of  pro- 
ducing high-grade  milk  as  is  the  producer. 

The  above  study  deals  with  correlation  in  a  general 
and  unmathematical  sense.    A  closer  criticism  of  the 
*  New  York  State. 


74  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

results  would  require  their  expression  in  exact  statis- 
tical correlation  figures.  Such  have  been  worked  out 
from  the  original  data  and  presented  with  inferences, 
which  corroborate  and  supplement  the  original  ones, 
by  Dr.  J.  Arthur  Harris.6  Dr.  Harris's  analysis,  by 
means  of  the  statistical  figure  known  as  the  "  correla- 
tion coefficient,"  leads  to  the  following  conclusions: — 

a.  The  correlation  between  the  total  scores  assigned  the 
same  barns  by  the  same  inspector  using  the  three  most  im- 
portant cards  is  only  about  three-quarters  of  its  theoretical 
maximum  value.     The  correlation  between  the  scores  for 
methods  only  is  less  than  half  its  theoretical  value. 

b.  There  is  practically  no  correlation  at  all  between  the 
scores  assigned  the  barns  by  dairy  inspectors  and  the  bac- 
terial content  of  the  milk  which  they  place  upon  the  market. 

c.  When  correlations  as  low  as  those  deduced  from  the 
present  figures  are  found  between  the  bacterial  counts  of 
morning  and  evening  samples  of  milk  from  the  same  barns, 
it  is  clear  thafc  much  remains  to  be  done  in  the  perfection 
of  the  technique  of  sampling  and  bacteriological  analyses 
of  milk. 

These  data  show  how  flimsy  is  the  basis  for  the  common 
belief  that  there  is  a  relation  between  the  score  of  a  dairy  and 
the  quality  of  the  milk  produced  by  it,  and  how  premature 
the  official  sanction  for  the  grading  of  milk  by  means  of  dairy 

scores. 
/ 

The  practical  significance  of  such  findings  and  earlier 
ones  of  others,7  taken  in  connection  with  the  considera- 
tions which  we  shall  next  review,  is  that  the  present 
score  cards  are  extremely  inefficient  instruments  of 
sanitation.  While  Mr.  Brew  does  not  construe  his 
results  to  disprove  the  value  of  the  score  card  idea,  he 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  75 

is  constrained  to  say  that  "  present  score  cards  cannot 
be  satisfactorily  used  as  means  of  grading  milk  accord- 
ing to  quality. " 

Going  back  for  a  moment  to  the  origin  of  the  present 
score  cards,  we  find  that,  in  the  words  of  other  investiga- 
tors along  a  related  line  (H.  A.  Harding  *  and  others, 
also  of  the  New  York  State  Agricultural  Experiment 
Station)  :— 

When  health  officials,  failing  to  find  other  means  of  char- 
acterizing sanitary  milk,  undertook  to  specify  the  conditions 
under  which  it  should  be  produced  they  were  confronted 
by  an  almost  total  lack  of  detailed  information  upon  this 
subject.  This  lack  arose  from  the  fact  that  the  available 
studies  upon  milk  sanitation  were  in  the  nature  of  general 
surveys  of  the  situation.  While  these  general  surveys  were 
a  necessary  preliminary,  they  gave  little  information  as  to 
either  the  absolute  or  the  relative  importance  of  any  given 
dairy  operation. 

Later  these  official  dairy  regulations  took  the  form  of  score 
cards.  These  cards  not  only  selected  certain  operations  as 
important  but  assigned  to  each  of  them  a  definite  numerical 
value. 

This  arbitrary  selection  of  values  in  the  absence  of  definite 
information  upon  the  subject  has  frequently  done  injustice 
to  the  dairy  business  and  can  be  justified  only  upon  the 
ground  of  the  urgent  need  of  official  action.  The  importance 
of  the  interests  involved  demands  that  the  needed  informa- 
tion shall  be  furnished  as  promptly  as  possible.8 

Mr.  Brew,  also,  says  that  "  there  is  little  hope  of  de- 
signing a  score  card  which  will  accomplish  this  purpose 
[of  grading  milk  according  to  quality]  until  all  of  the 

*  Now  of  the  University  of  Illinois. 


76  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

factors  which  are  thought  to  affect  the  quality  of  milk 
in  any  way  have  been  carefully  studied  and  the  in- 
fluence of  each  determined  and  accurately  measured. 
In  this  way  the  really  important  factors  can  be  singled 
out  and  given  the  proper  value  on  the  score  card." 

What  these  important  factors  are  will  be  considered 
in  the  following  section,  after  which  the  question  of  the 
feasibility  of  amending  the  score  card  will  be  taken  up 
again. 

RATIONAL   METHODS   IN   CLEAN   MILK. 
PRODUCTION 

The  impression  which  has  long  been  growing  upon 
acute  observers,  that  the  production  of  clean  milk  is 
not  the  complicated  matter  that  it  has  been  supposed 
to  be,  is  now  scientifically  confirmed.  For  a  number 
of  years  some  highly  significant  experiments  have  been 
carried  on  by  Harding  and  others  9  *  at  the  New  York 
State  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  on  the  proposi- 
tion that  "  there  is  great  opportunity  for  economy  in 
sanitary  milk  production  through  the  saving  of  useless 
labor. "  These  experiments,  conducted  with  reference 
to  single  dairy  conditions  and  operations,  show  that 
certain  of  these,  commonly  thought  influential,  really 
exert  little  or  no  influence  on  the  germ  content  of  the 
milk.  Following  are  some  remarks  from  this  study 
(italics  inserted)  :— 

*  In  actuality  these  experiments  were  antedated  by  those  of  Dr. 
North  which  resulted  in  his  system  described  below  (cf.  Appendix  C), 
but  it  seems  logical  to  introduce  them  at  this  point  on  account  of  the 
general  nature  of  the  ideas  brought  out  by  them. 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  77 

In  public  discussions  of  clean  milk,  the  certified  milk 
standard  of  10,000  germs  per  c.c.  is  ordinarily  taken  as  in- 
suring a  milk  which  is  above  suspicion  of  uncleanliness.  In 
obtaining  milk  which  shall  be  safely  below  this  10,000  limit, 
it  is  the  custom  to  expend  much  labor  in  washing  the  cows 
and  in  keeping  the  interior  of  the  barn  scrupulously  clean.  .  . 

Those  who  have  followed  recent  discussions  of  germ  con- 
tent of  city  milk  and  particularly  those  who  are  familiar 
with  the  extreme  precautions  which  are  taken  by  many  of 
the  producers  of  certified  milk  will  be  struck  by  the  small 
germ  content  which  has  characterized  the  milk  obtained  [by 
simple  scientific  methods]  during  these  experiments  .  .  .  the 
large  number  of  counts  which  are  under  1,000  germs  per 
c.c.  .  .  . 

This  milk  was  produced  under  general  conditions  which  ap- 
pear to  be  no  better  than  those  surrounding  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  the  ordinary  city  dairies,  conditions  which  probably 
would  not  be  acceptable  to  any  certified  milk  commission. . .  . 

The  important  fact  which  is  being  gradually  recognized 
through  these  and  similar  observations  is  that  the  production 
of  a  reasonably  clean  and  low-germ-content  milk  will  be  a  far 
simpler  and  less  expensive  undertaking  when  the  factors  which 
really  govern  its  production  are  actually  understood. 

Some  of  the  separate  factors  are  dealt  with  in  the 
conclusions  as  follows: — 

The  cleanliness  of  the  interior  of  the  stable,  within  a  fairly 
wide  range,  had  no  measurable  effect  upon  the  milk.* 

The  protection  of  milk  pails  from  accidental  contamination 
after  they  had  been  thoroughly  steamed  had  a  measurable 
effect  in  reducing  the  germ  content  of  the  milk. 

*  A  recent  number  of  the  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Association 
(Sept.  2,  1916,  p.  746)  has  an  editorial  entitled  "The  relation  of  stable 
air  to  sanitary  milk,"  asserting  that  aerial  contamination  in  milking 
is  negligible. 


78  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

When  all  of  the  utensils  had  been  carefully  steamed,  cool- 
ing and  straining  the  milk  resulted  in  only  a  small  increase 
in  germ  content  even  when  this  was  done  under  what  would 
ordinarily  be  considered  as  rather  unfavorable  conditions. 

By  removing  some  of  the  misconception  which  has 
grown  up  as  a  result  of  the  misplaced  emphasis,  by  both 
certified  milk  rules  and  score  cards,  on  dozens  of  minor 
details,  such  findings  as  those  quoted  in  the  foregoing 
pages  clear  the  way  for  the  acceptance  of  simplified 
methods  of  sanitary  milk  production. 

The  North  System 

The  idea  of  rational  simplification  has  taken  con- 
crete form  in  the  system  of  sanitary  milk  production 
devised  by  Dr.  Charles  E.  North,  a  consulting  sani- 
tarian of  New  York  City.  This  system  carries  to  a 
logical  conclusion  the  emphasis  upon  methods  as  opposed 
to  equipment;  it  centers  around  a  few  simple  requirements 
which  may  be  asked  of  any  farmer,  and,  on  the  commercial 
side,  compensates  the  farmer  through  a  rational  scale  of 
payments.  The  application  of  the  ideas  exemplified  by 
Dr.  North's  practice  should,  on  present  showing,  revolu- 
tionize the  practical  production  of  clean  milk  by  mak- 
ing it  possible  for  such  milk  to  be  profitably  produced 
by  ordinary  farmers  on  ordinary  farms  without  ex- 
pensive equipment  and  at  a  reasonable  cost. 

The  fundamental  factors  upon  which  this  system  is 
based  have  been  simply  stated  by  Dr.  North.  Eliminat- 
ing all  non-essentials  or  matters  of  secondary  impor- 
tance and  including  those  only  of  primary  importance 
and  "  which  even  alone  are  sufficient  to  produce  under 
the  conditions  found  in  ordinary  dairies  a  milk  so  clean 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS 


79 


that  it  will  have  with  great  regularity  a  bacterial  count 
of  less  than  10,000  bacteria  per 
c.c.,"  the  list  is  as  follows:— 

1.  Milking     with     clean,     dry 
hands,  into  covered  (i.  e.,  small- 
mouth)    pails    from   udders   free 
from  loose  dirt;* 

2.  Sterilization  of   pails,   cans, 
strainers,  etc.,  with  boiling  water; 

3.  Cooling  milk  by  submerging 

cans  in  tanks  of  spring  water  or  FlG    n     THE   SMALL_ 

ice  water.  MOUTH  MILKING  PAIL 

To  which  are  added  as  measures  An  important  utensil  in 


of  control:— 

(a)  The  taking  of  samples  at 
shipping  stations  for  frequent 
bacterial  tests  (at  least  three  times 
per  week) ; 

(6)  The  payment,  to  the  pro- 
ducers, of  premiums  (lOc.  or  20c. 
per  40-quart  can  for  milk  testing 
below  the  bacterial  standards  es- 
tablished, 25,000  to  10,000  per 
c.c.).10 

The  complete   bacterial  trans- 
formation, in  five  different  localities  under  Dr.  North's 
supervision,  of  large  volumes  of  milk  produced  by  many 

*  It  might  perhaps  be  thought  that  the  use  of  the  milking  machines 
which  have  been  introduced  in  some  localities  would  assist  in  obtaining 
a  low-germ-content  milk.  Experience,  however,  has  shown  that  the 
milking  machine  is  apt  not  to  be  thoroughly  cleaned  and  sterilized  and 
may  therefore  add  large  numbers  of  bacteria  to  the  milk.  (Ruediger, 
Gustav  F.,  Jour.  Inf.  Dis.,  vol.  XIX,  Oct.,  1916.) 


clean  milk  production. 
By  its  use  the  amount 
of  bacteria-laden  dust 
and  dirt  falling  into  the 
milk  at  time  of  milking 
may  be  reduced  by  as 
much  as  90  per  cent. 
There  are  a  number  of 
types  of  such  pails. 
This  one,  used  by 
farmers  working  under 
Dr.  North's  system,  is 
provided  with  a  cover 
to  protect  it  after 
sterilization. 


80 


THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 


dairy  farms  justifies  the  conclusion  that  the  measures 
employed  must  be  fundamental.  A  strong  point  of  the 
system  is  that  the  farmer  is  asked  to  do  only  those  few 
things  which  it  is  essential  that  he  do,  while  other  func- 
tions are  centralized  in  a  well-equipped  country  milk 
plant,  which  acts  as  a  combined  dairy  house  for  all  the 
farms.* 

Where  such  a  plant  is  established  the  requirements  for 
the  farmer  may  be  reduced  to  Nos.  1  and  3,  steriliza- 

*  The  division  of  requirements  as  to  equipment  between  farmer  and 
station  is  shown  by  Dr.  North  as  follows: — 


"Farm 


"1.  Cows,  healthy. 

2.  Cows,  tuberculin-tested. 

3.  Cows,  sound  udders. 

4.  Cows,  not  in  calving  period. 


5.  Cow  feed,  no  strong  flavor. 

6.  Cow  feed,  none  unwholesome. 

7.  Milkers,  no    contagious    dis- 

ease. 


'Station 


"1.  Water  supply,  pure. 

2.  Dairy-house,  superintendent. 

3.  Dairy-house,  employees. 

4.  Dairy-house,  white  uniforms. 

5.  Dairy-house,  room  for  wash- 

ing. 

6.  Dairy-house,  room  for  steril- 

izing. 

7.  Dairy-house,  room  for  cool- 

ing, bottling. 

8.  Dairy-house,  laboratory. 


9.  Dairy-house,    apparatus, 
steam. 

10.  Dairy-house,     apparatus, 

power. 

11.  Dairy-house,     apparatus, 

washing,  sterilizing. 

12.  Dairy-house,    apparatus, 

cooling,  bottling. 

13.  Dairy-house,    apparatus, 

pails,  cans,  bottles. 

14.  Dairy-house,  ice,  supply 

abundant. 

"Those  requirements  relating  to  the  general  health  of  the  cow  must 
always  be  insisted  upon,  with  the  exception  of  tuberculin-testing. 
Clean  milk  can  be  produced  from  any  kind  of  cows  whether  tuberculin- 
tested  or  not.  I  believe  that  tuberculin-testing  is  necessary  only  where 
milk  is  to  be  sold  in  a  raw  state."  ("The  Market  Value  of  Cleanliness 
in  Milk  Production,"  address  delivered  at  36th  Annual  Convention, 
N.  Y.  State  Dairymen's  Association,  1912.) 


PLATE  2.  ORDINARY  DAIRY  STABLES  IN  WHICH  CLEAN  MILK 
Is  PRODUCED 

(a)  This  is  a  dairy  of  fifty  cows  which  consistently  produces  milk  under 
10,000  bacteria  per  cubic  centimeter  and  the  milk  from  which  received 
the  first  prize  at  the  New  York  State  Fair  in  1915  with  a  higher  score  than 
ever  given  to  any  milk  in  that  exhibition,  including  even  certified  milk. 
(Courtesy  of  Dr.  C.  E.  North,  North  Public  Health  Bureau,  New  York 
City.) 

(6)  A  cow  stable  in  Maryland  in  which  milk  is  regularly  produced  with  less 
than  10,000  bacteria  per  c.c.  This  barn  is  one  in  which  horses  are  also 
stabled,  and  in  which  the  light  is  very  deficient  and  the  floors  of  wood. 
(Courtesy  of  Dr.  North.) 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  81 

tion  of  all  utensils  being  performed  at  the  plant.  The 
contrast  between  the  simplicity  of  this  plan  and  the 
many  requirements  for  certified  milk,  or  even  for  good 
market  milk  under  the  score-card  system,  is  striking. 

Clean  milk,  requiring  more  pains  and  being  worth 
more  than  dirty  milk,  deserves  a  certain  premium.  The 
extra  cost  under  the  North  system  is  roughly  indicated 
by  the  following  figures,  from  the  plant  which  was  es- 
tablished at  Homer,  New  York,  by  the  New  York 
Dairy  Demonstrating  Company.11 

Premiums  paid  to  farmers: 

For  tuberculin-tested  cows  ................   J/£c.  per  quart 

For  "  sanitation"  (milking  into  covered  pails 
washed  and  sterilized  at  the  receiving  sta- 
tion, and  cooling  with  ice)  ..............  J^c.  "  " 

For  keeping  bacteria  count  under  10,000 
per  c.c 


Total  ....................  ........  ...   Ic. 

(The  payment  plan  also  includes  premiums  for  butter  fat.) 

A  typical  monthly  bill  made  out  to  one  of  the  dairy- 
men supplying  this  station  is  as  follows:  — 

New  York  Dairy  Demonstration  Co.,  Homer,  N.  Y.,  to 
Mr.  Blank,  Dr. 

1912 

Dec.  1    To  4,500  qts.  of  milk  at  4J^c  ......  ......  $191  .  25 

To  premium  butter  fat  3.9%  at  2c  ........       9  .  00 

To  tuberculin  test  at  3-8c  ...............     16.87 

To  bacteria  at  C  ......................  11.25 


Total ..$228,37 


82  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

In  this  bill  it  is  seen  that  if  this  dairyman  had  sold  his  milk 
to  a  shipping  station  buying  regular  market  milk  for  New 
York,  he  would  have  received  $191.25;  but  this  bill  shows 
that  certain  premiums  are  received  by  the  dairyman  of 
Homer,  because  he  carries  his  milk  to  the  Homer  station. 
The  fact  that  his  cows  were  tuberculin-tested  increased  his 
check  $16.87;  the  fact  that  his  milk  contained  a  bacteria 
count  averaging  less  than  10,000  for  the  month  brought  him 
in  $11.25.  He  also  received  a  premium  for  richness,  because 
his  butter  fat  was  above  3.7  per  cent,  which  is  the  standard 
set  by  this  station.12 

The  additional  cost  of  running  the  station,  over  and 
above  that  of  an  ordinary  bottling  station,  was  %c., 
so  that  the  additional  cost  of  supplying  a  tuberculin- 
tested  milk  with  a  bacteria  count  under  30,000  at  time 
of  delivery  was  one  and  one-half  cents  a  quart, — an 
amount  which  certainly  cannot  be  considered  excessive.* 

Certified  milk,  owing  to  its  requirements,  which 
are  out  of  reach  of  the  rank  and  file  of  farmers,  and  its 
small  volume  of  production,  costs  on  the  average  6 
cents  more  than  ordinary  market  milk.  But  here  is 
milk  of  the  highest  grade,  at  a  moderate  cost,  requiring 
for  its  production  only  an  ordinary  stable  and  equipment, 
healthy  cows  properly  cared  for  (tuberculin-tested  if  the 
milk  is  to  be  sold  raw),  healthy  milkers,  and  the  exercise 
of  exceedingly  simple  sanitary  precautions. 

(For  further  details  the  reader  is  referred  to  the 
fuller  account  of  the  North  system  in  Appendix  C, 
where  a  list  of  Dr.  North's  publications  is  also  given.) 

*  If  a  non-tuberculin-tested  but  pasteurized  clean  milk  be  desired, 
the  extra  cost  would  be,  on  this  basis,  not  over  one  cent.  Milk  can  be 
commercially  pasteurized  for  Ic.  or  less  per  quart  (see  Appendix  D). 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  83 

Finally,  the  newer  ideas  on  sanitary  milk  produc- 
tion— the  insistence  on  effective  method  as  opposed  to 
observance  of  arbitrary,  unessential  requirements,— 
are  steadily  making  their  way  into  practice.  Speaking 
of  the  fact  that  the  conditions  which  are  ordinarily  ob- 
served by  the  dairy  inspector  bear  no  definite  relation 
to  the  sanitary  character  of  the  milk  itself,  Dr.  North 
says : — 

The  production  of  " Grade  A  Milk"  for  the  New  York 
City  market  in  several  thousand  barns  of  the  ordinary  type 
by  the  rank  and  file  of  dairy  farmers,  such  milk  in  most  cases 
conforming  with  standards  for  bacteria  of  25,000,  and  even 
10,000,  is  a  demonstration  of  this  fact  on  a  gigantic  scale.13 

AMENDMENT  OF  THE  DAIRY  SCORE  CARD 

We  may  now  return  to  the  question  whether,  in 
view  of  the  knowledge  now  at  hand  of  the  really  essen- 
tial factors  in  clean  milk  production,  the  dairy  score 
card  can  be  satisfactorily  amended. 

Efforts  have  from  time  to  time  been  made  to  correct 
the  inadequacy  of  score  cards  by  assigning  more  weight 
to  methods  than  to  equipment  and  by  assigning  a 
greater  value  than  previously  to  certain  of  the  methods. 
Even  so,  Harris  has  shown  from  the  study  of  Brew 
which  has  already  been  cited  that  the  two  cards  which 
gave  60  per  cent  to  methods  differed  distinctly  more 
in  estimation  of  methods  than  in  that  of  equipment, 
and  that  even  when  the  score  for  methods  alone  was 
considered  there  was  no  distinct  correlation  with  the 
bacterial  counts.  This  leads  Dr.  Harris  to  remark 
that  "the  lower  correlation  of  the  values  assigned  for 
methods  as  compared  with  those  for  equipment  is 


84  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

perhaps  the  most  serious  criticism  to  be  made  of  the 
score  cards." 

The  advocates  of  the  score  card  believe  that  it  can 
be  adjusted  so  that  it  may  still  be  useful  as  a  means 
of  dairy  instruction,  of  guidance  to  the  inspector  or 
demonstrator,  of  education  of  the  dairy  farmer,  and 
even  of  rating.  An  invaluable  paper  dealing  with  this 
question  has  recently  been  published  by  Dr.  North.14 
After  discussing  the  compositions  of  well-known  score 
cards,  Dr.  North  takes  up  the  relations  of  different 
items  or  factors  to  the  actual  character  of  milk  as 
shown  by  bacteria  counts,  concluding  with  a  suggested 
new  type  of  card,  in  which  90  per  cent  of  the  score 
relates  to  the  three  great  considerations:  milking, 
cooling,  and  sterilizing.  A  division  of  items  is  also  made 
between  primary  and  secondary  equipment  and  pri- 
mary and  secondary  methods.  This  suggested  card  is, 
therefore,  not  merely  a  revision  of  present  cards,  but 
represents  a  radical  change  in  arrangement  and  em- 
phasis. 

Dr.  North's  card,  while  not  put  forth  as  insusceptible 
of  possible  modification,  undoubtedly  approximates  in 
its  arithmetical  degrees  of  emphasis  the  knowledge  ex- 
isting to-day  on  the  relative  weights  of  the  various 
sanitary  items.  It  therefore  affords  a  hopeful  affirma- 
tive answer  to  the  question  as  to  whether  the  score 
card  can  be  satisfactorily  amended.  Although  con- 
taining a  large  number  of  items  relating  to  secondary 
or  non-essential  matters,  thus  negativing  the  idea  of 
an  exhaustive  yet  simple  card,  it  will  give  both  inspec- 
tor and  dairyman  a  very  fair  indication  of  the  im- 
portance to  be  attached  to  the  various  points  in  milk 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  85 

production.  The  idea  of  scoring  has  become  so  well 
established  and  its  effectiveness  as  a  means  of  prac- 
tical procedure  so  well  proven  that  the  move  to  put 
it  on  a  thoroughly  accurate  basis  is  well  worth  while. 
Some  such  schedule  is  evidently  desirable  to  prevent 
inspection  or  dairy  demonstration  from  becoming  a 
matter  of  the  inspector's  personal  opinion  and  to 
answer  the  farmer's  question  as  to  how  he  can  best 
attain  the  demanded  result  of  low  bacteria  counts. 
Even  where  sufficient  bacteriological  testing  is  not 
available,  such  a  card  will  furnish  a  valuable  guide  to 
dairy  inspection  and  operation,  although  the  accurate 
grading  of  milks  requires  such  testing.  A  practical 
application  of  a  card  of  this  new  type  in  connection 
with  bacteria  counts  would  readily  determine  its  ap- 
plicability and  its  degree  of  correlation  with  the  bac- 
terial results. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  score  card,  useful 
as  it  may  be,  can  give  only  approximate  or  probable 
indications.  The  ultimate  criterion  is  the  laboratory 
test.  How,  for  example,  shall  we  infer  that  a  dairy- 
man actually  does  always  use  the  sterilized  small- 
mouth  pail  or  that  he  milks  and  cools  properly,  except 
by  results  as  shown  by  regularly  favorable  tests?  His 
statement  may  or  may  not  be  dependable,  but  the  test 
is  a  telltale.*  The  logical  mode  of  control  is  the  valua- 

*  It  is  not  here  meant  that  the  bacteriological  laboratory  can  indicate 
the  exact  history  of  a  milk  or  absolutely  certify  that  the  dairy  methods 
are  correct.  Bacteria  counts  are  subject  to  variations  that  are  impossible 
to  interpret  without  a  knowledge  of  circumstances,  and  can  only  be 
taken  as  general  summings-up.  For  this  reason  inspection  can  never 
be  dispensed  with,  but  must  be  considered  as  complementary  to  the 
laboratory. 


86  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

tion  of  milks  according  to  laboratory  tests,  comple- 
mented by  instruction  of  the  dairyman  in  the  simple 
methods  by  which  he  can  keep  his  count  down.  The 
use  of  a  rational  score  card  would  make  such  instruction 
definite  and  accurate,  but  his  attention  should  be  di- 
rected through  the  rating  according  to  his  equipment 
and  stated  methods  to  the  desired  final  bacterial  result. 
While  the  part  that  has  been  played  by  the  dairy 
score  card  in  the  past  in  stimulating  milk  supervision 
is  not  to  be  underrated,  it  must  be  said  that  the  forms 
of  the  card  accepted  hitherto  represent  a  phase  of 
development  in  which  practical  exigency  required  ac- 
tion on  assumptions  now  seen  to  be  faulty.  Now  that 
such  assumptions  may  l^e  corrected  a  reasonably  ac- 
curate score  card  may  be  formulated  which  will  be  of 
decided  service.  With  the  use  of  such  a  card  there  are 
probably  few  farmers  who  would  fail  to  practice  the 
indicated  methods  if  the  sale  of  their  milk  depended 
upon  results.* 

INFANT  WELFARE  STATIONS 

Contemporaneous  with  the  clean  milk  movement  was 
the  development  of  infants'  milk  depots,  or  milk  sta- 
tions, whose  initial  object  was  the  dispensing,  free  or 
at  cost,  of  a  high-grade  milk  for  infant  feeding.  The 
idea  was  the  result  of  the  conviction  that  the  market 
milk  of  large  cities  was  unfit  for  infant  feeding,  yet 
that  the  poor  must  have  good  milk  at  a  low  cost. 

*  No  discussion  can  be  entered  into  here  regarding  score  cards  for 
milk  plants.  Similar  considerations,  however,  apply  to  such  plants 
in  that  they  should  be  judged,  not  merely  by  equipment  and  visible 
operation,  but  chiefly  by  their  bacterial  efficiency. 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  87 

The  first  institution  of  this  kind  in  the  United  States 
was  established  at  the  Eastern  Dispensary  in  New 
York,  by  Dr.  Henry  Koplik,  in  1889.  The  establish- 
ment of  the  important  Straus  milk  depots  was  begun, 
in  New  York,  in  1893,  and  have  since  had  a  great  in- 
fluence in  this  field  of  endeavor.  The  Straus  depots 
dispense  milk  of  the  highest  grade,  modified  and  pas- 
teurized at  the  depot.  Similar  work  is  also  carried  on 
by  the  New  York  Milk  Committee,  the  Health  De- 
partment, and  other  organizations  in  New  York  City. 
The  first  municipal  milk  station  was  established  in 
Rochester,  N.  Y.,  in  1897.  Infants'  milk  depots  rmve 
been  established,  under  either  unofficial  or  municipal 
control,  in  all  the  larger  cities,  of  the  United  States  and 
in  many  of  the  smaller  ones.15 

Curiously  enough,  what  was  originally  incidental  to 
the  infants'  milk  depot  has  become  the  chief  function 
of  the  fully  developed  infant  welfare  station, — con- 
sultation and  advice  in  the  general  hygiene  of  the  in- 
fant. When  the  milk  was  modified  it  was  found  neces- 
sary to  bring  the  baby  to  the  depot  for  examination 
and  prescription  of  the  formula;  hence  the  consulta- 
tion class.  The  distribution  of  milk  has  now  become 
subordinate  to  the  encouragement  of  maternal  feeding 
and  of  the  general  hygiene  of  the  child;  and  even  when 
artificial  feeding  is  necessary,  instruction  in  the  methods 
of  feeding  and,  in  many  cases,  of  home  modification  of 
milk  is  as  essential  as  the  milk  itself.  Dr.  S.  Josephine 
Baker  of  the  New  York  City  Department  of  Health 
has  given  the  opinion  that  "the  solution  of  the  problem 
of  infant  mortality  is  20  per  cent  pure  milk  and  80  per 
cent  training  of  the  mothers."  Prenatal  instruction, 


88  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

consultation,  and  the  encouragement  of  breast-feeding 
are  now  the  chief  lines  of  the  best  milk-station  work. 
In  short,  the  doctor  and  the  nurse,  rather  than  milk 
supply  (important  as  this  is),  are  the  chief  force  of  the 
infant  welfare  station. 

Milk  stations  have  served,  and  do  serve,  an  impor- 
tant purpose  in  providing  at  cost  or  less  a  special  grade 
of  milk  for  infant  feeding.  Countless  babies  have 
thriven  through  the  efforts  of  these  agencies  when  safe 
market  milk  could  not  be  obtained  except  at  a  pro- 
hibitive cost,  and  when  a  poor  grade  of  " loose"  or 
store  milk  swarming  with  bacteria  would  often  have 
been  used.  Such  distribution  of  milk  is  not,  however, 
a  cure-all.  Even  in  the  districts  where  milk  stations 
exist,  many  of  the  families  most  in  need  of  good  milk 
will  rely  on  the  ordinary  market  supplies.  There  are, 
moreover,  the  families  of  the  middle  classes,  which 
may  not  get  much  better  milk  than  the  tenements,  and 
which  cannot  afford  certified  milk,  but  which  would 
not  readily  be  drawn  to  milk  stations  even  were  they 
generally  available. 

One  of  the  chief  objects  of  adequate  milk  control  is  to 
bring  into  the  general  market,  at  a  moderate  price,  a 
recognized  grade  of  milk  suitable  for  infant  feeding.  Such 
milk  could  be  sold  both  from  wagons  and  from  strictly 
supervised  stores, — in  the  latter  case,  perhaps,  at  a 
lower  price.  The  accomplishment  of  this  will  be  the 
complete  attainment  of  a  general  object  which  is  now 
attained  only  partly — though  in  regard  to  the  most 
pressing  need — through  milk  stations.  The  latter,  on 
the  other  hand,  will  be  freer  to  exercise  the  larger,  more 
important  educational  function  of  the  modern  infant 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  89 

welfare  station.  With  reliable  infants'  milk  well  recog- 
nized in  the  market,  station  distribution  and  home 
pasteurization  would  be  largely  unnecessary;  the  en- 
ergies of  the  station  nurses  would  then  be  concen- 
trated, so  far  as  milk  is  concerned,  on  teaching  the  home 
care  and  preparation  of  milk,  while  station  prepara- 
tion would  still  be  possible  if  and  where  deemed  neces- 
sary. It  must  be  said,  however,  that  at  the  present 
time  milk  stations  are  often  the  only  thing  that 
stands  between  the  baby  and  the  dangers  of  ordinary 
milk. 

LABORATORY  TESTS  AND  STANDARDS 
I.  CHEMICAL 

The  earliest  milk  standards  adopted  were  chemical. 
Such  standards  relate  to  the  general  composition  of 
milk,  and  inasmuch  as  this  in  nature  varies  very  con- 
siderably, there  has  been  no  exact  agreement  in  the 
standards  set  by  various  authorities.  The  United 
States  official  standard  may  be  taken  as  representative: 
this  requires  12  per  cent  total  solids,  8.5  per  cent  solids 
not  fat,  and  3.25  per  cent  fat.  A  standard  of  9.25  per 
cent  total  solids  is  prescribed  for  skimmed  milk.  Stand- 
ards set  by  the  various  States  and  cities  *  vary  some- 
what from  the  above  and  may  even  establish  separate 
figures  for  winter  and  for  summer.  It  must  not  be 
thought  that  milk  which  is  barely  "  standard "  accord- 
ing to  these  figures  is  the  ideal;  they  merely  represent 

*  The  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture  has  recently  issued  a  sum- 
mary of  these. 


90  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

the  minimum  that  the  law  allows.*  Of  the  special 
figures,  that  for  fat  is  subject  to  greater  variation;  the 
other  solids  are  more  constant.  The  fat  percentage  may 
be  readily  determined  by  the  simple  Babcock  method. 

It  is  important  to  note  that  chemical  composition  is 
not  a  matter  of  sanitary  quality  but  of  nutriment.  Nor 
is  it  the  only  factor  in  nutrition,  for  the  character  of 
the  milk  as  to  digestibility  and  minute  composition, 
also  enters  into  the  question.  Thus  milk  from  Holstein 
cows,  though  thinner  in  fat  than  that  from  Jerseys  and 
Guernseys,  is  believed  to  be  more  digestible  because 
the  fat  globules  are  smaller;  hence  it  may  actually  yield 
readier  nutriment,  and  physicians  often  give  it  the 
preference  for  infant  feeding. 

That  the  proportion  of  fats  and  other  components 
is  not  a  sanitary  but  rather  an  economic  question,  does 
not,  however,  justify  neglecting  the  consideration  of 
chemical  composition  in  attempting  to  solve  the  milk 
problem  as  a  whole.  It  is  certainly  important  to  the 
consumer's  pocketbook  if  not  to  his  health  that  he  get 
his  money's  worth  in  nutriment — that  he  pay  accord- 
ing to  the  foodstuffs  he  is  actually  getting.  Manufac- 
turers of  butter,  cheese,  and  other  milk  products  cus- 
tomarily recognize  this  principle  when  they  buy  milk 
and  cream  on  a  butter-fat  basis.  With  market  rnilk, 
as  with  many  other  food  products,  it  is  simply  a  ques- 
tion of  right  labelling,  to  which  we  shall  revert  in  a 
later  chapter. 

Objection  has  been  raised  against  legal  standards 

*  Distinction  must  be  made  between  naturally  substandard  milk  and 
milk  adulterated  by  watering  or  skimming.  Much  heavier  penalties 
axe  usually,  and  justly,  prescribed  for  adulteration. 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  91 

for  composition,  largely  on  account  of  the  natural 
variations  in  milk  from  individual  cows.  (See  Fig.  1, 
Chapter  I.)  Such  cows  not  infrequently  give  milk 
which  fails  to  comply  with  official  minima.  Small 
herds  may  sometimes  give  such  milk.  The  objection 
has  been  strengthened  by  the  failure  of  authorities 
to  agree  on  any  precise  standard.  Sometimes  the 
standards  have  been  altered  in  an  attempt  at  adjust- 
ment. In  New  York  State,  for  example,  the  dairy 
farmers  came  to  produce  so  largely  with  cows  bred  for 
quantity  but  not  for  richness  that  the  Legislature 
lowered  the  total  solids  requirement  from  12  to  11.5 
per  cent.  Dealers  may  have  to  mix  milks  and  creams 
so  as  to  meet  a  standard  to  which  all  the  milk  bought 
by  them  does  not  attain.  The  tendency,  especially  in 
the  case  of  the  large  supplies,  is  to  bring  all  milks  down 
to  a  level  just  above  the  legal  minimum.  Where  the 
producer  has  a  rich  milk  there  is  temptation  to  skim,  or 
even  to  water  when  the  authorities  are  not  vigilant. 
It  is  obvious  that  such  a  levelling-down  of  milks  is  an 
artificially  induced  condition  which  operates  to  drive 
the  richer  milks  from  the  retail  market.  This  makes  it 
more  difficult  for  the  consumer  who  desires  the  richer 
kinds  to  obtain  them. 

In  view  of  such  considerations  it  has  been  proposed 
to  abolish  the  legal  standard  and  permit  milks  to  be 
sold  on  their  merits.  This  was  suggested  as  long  ago 
as  1907,  by  Mr.  P.  M.  Harwood,  Chief  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Dairy  Bureau,  in  a  paper  entitled  "Has  the 
milk  standard  outlived  its  usefulness?"  16  The  com- 
mission on  Milk  Standards  of  the  New  York  Milk 
Committee  has  now  suggested  the  regulation  of  market 


92  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

milk  on  the  basis  of  guaranteed  percentage  composition, 
as  follows:— 

1.  Sellers  of  milk  should  be  permitted  choice  of  one  of 
two  systems  in  handling  market  milk.     Milk  can  be  sold, 
first,  under  the  regular  standard,  or,  second,  under  a  guaran- 
teed statement  of  composition. 

2.  Any  normal  milk  may  be  sold  if  its  per  cent  of  fat  is 
stated.    In  case  the  per  cent  of  fat  is  not  stated,  the  sale  will 
be  regarded  as  a  violation  unless  the  milk  contains  at  least 
3.25  per  cent  of  milk  fat. 

3.  As  a  further  protection  to  consumers,  it  is  desirable 
that  when  the  guaranty  system  is  used  there  be  also  a  mini- 
mum guaranty  of  milk  solids  not  fat  of  not  less  than  8.5 
per  cent. 

4.  Dealers  electing  to  sell  milk  under  the  guaranty  system 
should  be  required  to  state  conspicuously  the  guaranty  on 
all  containers  in  which  such  milk  is  handled  by  the  dealer 
or  delivered  to  the  consumer. 

5.  The  sale  of  milk  on  a  guaranty  system  should  be  by 
special   permission   obtained   from   some   proper   local   au- 
thority.17 

The  application  of  this  idea  of  fat  markings  will  be 
reverted  to  in  Chapter  V. 

II.  BACTERIOLOGICAL 

The  total  count  of  bacteria  per  cubic  centimeter  *  has 
commonly  been  accepted  as  the  most  satisfactory  single 
index  of  the  sanitary  quality  of  milk.  This  figure 
represents  in  sum  the  bacterial  content  resulting  from 

*  Attention  has  recently  been  called  by  Robert  S.  Breed  (Science, 
Nov.  24,  1916)  to  the  fact  that  the  customary  form  of  expression — • 
number  of  "bacteria  per  cubic  centimeter" — is  incorrect  inasmuch  as 
"  these  counts  are  probably  counts  of  groups  of  bacteria  rather  than  of 


PLATE  4.  (a)   BACTERIA  PLATES 

High-  and  low-bacteria  milks.  The  spots  are  bacterial  colonies  each  of  which 
has  developed,  in  the  jelly-like  medium,  from  a  bacterium  or  group  of 
bacteria  in  a  minute  amount  of  the  milk.  Bacteria  "counts"  indicate  the 
numbers  of  colonies  developing  from  precisely  measured  quantities  of 
milk,  reduced  to  a  basis  of  "bacteria  per  cubic  centimeter."  (Courtesy  of 
the  New  York  Milk  Committee  and  Dr.  Chas.  E.  North.) 


(6)  DIRT  TESTS 

Dirt  strained  out  of  four  kinds  of  milk  by  use  of  small  cotton  disks.  The 
dirt  is  mostly  manure  and  contains  great  numbers  of  bacteria.  Such 
manure  may  contain  the  germs  of  bovine  tuberculosis.  This  is  a  ready 
practical  method  of  demonstrating  the  results  of  dirty  or  careless  milking, 
though  it  cannot  take  the  place  of  the  far  more  searching  tests  of  bac- 
teriology. (Bull.  361,  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agriculture.) 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  93 

contamination  and  from  later  development  of  the  con- 
taminating bacteria.  The  total  count  does  not,  how- 
ever, give  any  information  as  to  the  kind  of  bacteria 
present.  Pathogenic  organisms  are  not  detected.  Nor 
is  it  possible,  by  this  test  alone,  to  determine  how  far 
the  count  is  due  to  contamination  and  how  far  to  mul- 
tiplication of  the  bacteria  through  insufficient  refrigera- 
tion. The  count  depends,  as  a  rule,  far  more  on  such 
multiplication  than  on  the  initial  contamination.  Pas- 
teurization, moreover,  destroys  the  value  of  the  total 
count  as  an  indicator  of  the  previous  state  of  the  milk. 
The  question  may  be  asked,  what  means  we  have  of 
determining  the  presence  of  contaminating  matter  or 
of  disease  germs  in  milk.  The  routine  detection  of 
specific  disease  germs  in  milk  is  impracticable  because 
of  difficulties  of  bacteriological  technique,  and  their 
presence,  even  if  detected,  would  not  be  known  until 
after  the  milk  had  been  distributed  and  consumed. 
The  estimation  of  dirt  or  filth  contamination  is,  how- 
ever, feasible.  The  tests  for  this  purpose  will  be  dis- 
cussed in  the  following  section. 

Notwithstanding  what  has  just  been  said,  the  total 
count,  taken  as  a  general  index  of  contamination  plus 

individual  bacteria  and  .  .  .  are  probably  always  lower  than  they 
should  be  because  of  the  fact  that  not  all  bacteria  will  grow  on  nutrient 
agar  at  the  incubation  temperature  used."  While  this  qualification  is 
well  recognized  by  bacteriologists,  there  is  danger  of  its  being  neglected 
even  by  them.  Microscopical  studies  are  cited  by  Mr.  Breed  to  indicate 
that  the  actual  numbers  of  (living?)  bacteria  in  market  milk  are  from 
one  and  a  half  to  twenty-five  or  more  times  the  number  of  colonies 
developing,  depending  on  the  kinds  present.  Until,  however,  some 
other  form  of  statement  is  adopted,  the  number  of  "  bacteria  per  c.c.," 
i.  e.,  of  plate  colonies,  remains  the  practical  basis  of  comparison  of  the 
general  bacterial  character  of  different  samples  of  milk. 


94  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

bacterial  fermentation  or  decomposition,  has  an  ac- 
cepted value  together  with  the  merit  of  simplicity  hi 
routine  milk  examination.* 

Standards  f  for  total  count  of  bacteria  have  been 
adopted  by  many  municipalities;  in  fact  such  a  stand- 
ard— or  rather,  maximum  for  market  milk — has  been 
considered  the  necessary  basis  for  administrative  use 
of  the  counts.  The  first  bacteriological  standard  in 
the  United  States  was  adopted  by  the  New  York  City 
Board  of  Health,  which  in  1900  set  a  limit  of  1,000,000 
bacteria  per  cubic  centimeter,  which,  however,  it  was 
found  at  that  time  impossible  to  enforce.  Boston 
adopted  in  1905  a  legal  limit  of  500,000,  the  figure 
which  is  still  its  standard  for  all  market  milk.  The 
United  States  Public  Health  Service  18  has  ascertained 
the  limits  which  have  been  established  by  some  150 
cities  of  10,000  population  or  over.  These  range  from 

*  An  important  study  of  the  technique  of  the  bacteriological  deter- 
mination of  the  total  count,  based  on  a  co-operative  test  by  four  of  the 
large  laboratories  in  New  York  City,  has  recently  been  published. 
(Conn,  H.  W.,  " Standards  for  determining  the  purity  of  milk:  the  limit 
of  error  in  bacteriological  milk  analyses,"  Reprint  295  from  Public 
Health  Reports,  Aug.  13,  1915.) 

This  paper  finds  defects  in  technique  under  present  standard  methods 
but  concludes  that  these  methods  are  sufficiently  accurate  to  warrant 
the  grades  recommended  by  the  Commission  on  Milk  Standards  (Ap- 
pendix B).  In  routine  bacteriological  milk  analyses  the  Standard 
Methods  of  the  American  Public  Health  Association,  as  amended  from 
time  to  time  should  be  exactly  followed.  A  new  report  by  the  Com- 
mittee on  these  methods  was  presented  at  the  1916  meeting  of  the 
Association  and  a  revised  edition  of  the  Methods  has  been  published. 

f  This  use  of  the  term  " standard"  is  unfortunate  in  that  it  implies 
an  average  acceptable  quality  if  not  something  better.  Exactly  stand- 
ard milk  would,  of  course,  be  barely  within  the  limit  of  the  law  and 
hence  of  the  poorest  salable  quality.  "Legal  limit"  is  a  better 
term. 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  95 

100,000  to  500,000  for  market  milk  in  general,  but  a 
number  have  different  requirements  for  raw  and  for 
pasteurized  milk  and,  where  grading  has  been  adopted, 
for  more  than  single  grades  of  these.  Some  cities  have 
established  separate  standards  for  summer  and  winter, 
on  the  principle  that  lower  counts  can  be  obtained  in 
the  colder  months. 

Marked  improvements  have  been  brought  about 
through  bacterial  standards  even  where  rigid  enforce- 
ment has  not  been  obtained.  In  the  large  cities  the 
number  of  bacteria  in  many  supplies  in  the  summer 
months  has  been  so  great  that  their  reduction  to  below 
the  standard  was  not  to  be  accomplished  at  a  stroke. 
In  the  smaller  places  the  low  germ-content  has  been 
more  attainable.  The  town  of  Montclair,  N.  J.,  for 
instance,  which  has  for  years  followed  the  clean  milk 
ideal,  has  succeeded  by  vigorous  measures  in  obtaining 
milk  supplies  of  which  85  per  cent  of  the  samples  run 
below  100,000  bacteria  per  cubic  centimeter. 

For  example  of  bacterial  limits  for  different  grades 
of  milk,  see  the  classification  of  milk,  Appendix  B. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  Commission  on  Milk 
Standards  appointed  by  the  New  York  Milk  Committee 
gave  special  consideration  to  bacterial  standards  and, 
with  regard  to  its  recommendations,  reported: — 

The  Commission  believes  that  the  adoption  and  enforce- 
ment of  these  bacterial  standards  will  be  more  effective  than 
any  other  one  thing  in  improving  the  sanitary  character  of 
public  milk  supplies.  The  enforcement  of  these  standards 
can  be  carried  out  only  by  the  regular  and  frequent  labora- 
tory examinations  of  milks  for  the  numbers  of  bacteria  they 
may  contain.19 


96  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

Microscopic  Examination 

Microscopic  examination  of  milk  for  the  determina- 
tion of  pus  and  bacteria  has  been  coming  in  recent  years 
somewhat  rapidly  into  use,  but  is  not  fully  established 
as  a  standard  method  of  estimating  numbers  of  bac- 
teria. It  is  now  under  consideration  by  a  special  sub- 
committee of  the  National  Commission  on  Milk  Stand- 
ards and  will  be  reported  upon  later.*  The  following 
comment,  from  the  paper  by  Dr.  Conn  already  re- 
ferred to,  is  meanwhile  of  interest: — 

The  direct  microscopical  examination  of  milk  smears  by 
the  Breed  method  will  classify  raw  milk  into  grades  A,  B, 
and  C  with  about  the  same  accuracy  and  much  more  quickly 
than  the  plate  method  'of  bacteriological  analysis  will  do. 
It  is  of  no  use  in  the  study  of  pasteurized  milk,  however, 
since  it  discloses  dead  as  well  as  living  bacteria,  no  method  of 
distinguishing  between  them  having  yet  been  perfected. 
It  might  be  of  value  in  telling  whether  such  milk  had  be- 
come old  before  it  was  pasteurized,  since  such  would  show 
large  numbers  of  dead  bacteria  by  the  microscopic  method, 
though  it  might  show  small  numbers  by  the  plate  method. 

The  direct  microscopical  method  of  bacteriological  analy- 
sis ...  may  be  of  great  aid  to  the  large  dealer  to  enable 
him  to  determine  promptly  whether  he  is  purchasing  milk 
of  A,  B,  or  C  grade.  The  possibility  of  quick  results  and 

*  It  is,  however,  discussed  in  a  recent  provisional  report  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Standard  Methods  of  Bacteriological  Analysis  of  Milk,  of 
the  Laboratory  Section  of  the  American  Public  Health  Association 
(Am.  Jour.  Public  Health,  Dec.,  1916).  While  the  method  is  not  as 
yet  recommended  by  the  Committee  as  a  standard  method  of  estimat- 
ing numbers  of  bacteria,  its  value  in  rapidly  dividing  raw  milk  into 
grades  and  in  detecting  large  numbers  of  streptococci  is  recognized. 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  97 

ease  of  making  the  smears  at  the  dairy  or  shipping  station, 
subsequently  sending  them  to  the  laboratory  for  microscopic 
examination,  renders  the  method  especially  applicable  at  the 
dairy  end  of  the  line.20 

III.    CONTAMINATION  TESTS 

We  have  already  referred  to  the  value  of  being  able 
to  determine  the  presence  of  dirt  and  filth,  particularly 
manural  pollution,  in  milk.  Concerning  the  present 
status  of  tests  for  such  contamination  we  cannot  do 
better  than  to  quote  at  some  length  from  a  paper  of 
Dr.  John  Weinzirl: — 

This  problem  [of  eliminating  dirt  from  milk]  resolves 
itself  into  two  distinct  phases:  first,  the  problem  of  finding 
the  most  suitable  method  of  detecting  dirt  in  milk;  secondly, 
bringing  the  evidence  home  to  the  dairyman  and  making  him 
respond  to  the  new  demands.  Let  us  first  consider  the 
methods  of  detecting  filth  in  milk. 

Three  methods  are  in  use  more  or  less  commonly,  viz.: 
(1)  Determining  the  total  number  of  bacteria  present  in 
the  milk,  assuming  this  to  be  an  index  of  its  cleanliness,  and 
fixing  a  line  beyond  which  the  count  may  not  go,  otherwise 
sale  is  forbidden.  (2)  Determining  the  number  of  B.  coli 
present  and  setting  a  similar  standard.  (3)  Determining 
visible  dirt,  and  again  making  a  standard  for  purity.  To 
these  the  writer  now  desires  to  add  another,  (4)  Determining 
B.  sporogenes  and  creating  a  standard  of  purity. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  total  count  depends  upon  other 
factors  as  well  as  upon  dirt,  for  time  and  temperature  may 
cause  a  high  count  in  an  otherwise  clean  milk;  doubtless 
such  milk  should  be  barred  from  sale,  but  it  does  not  reach 
the  real  question,  which  is,  the  amount  of  dirt  present  in  it. 
Again,  if  the  milk  is  pasteurized,  the  total  count  fails  utterly 


98  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

to  indicate  dirt.*  Since  the  use  of  pasteurized  milk  is  rapidly 
increasing,  the  ultimate  failure  of  the  total  count  is  obvious. 
As  to  determining  the  number  of  B.  coli  and  using  the  data 
to  indicate  manure,  this  method  will  fail  for  the  same  reasons 
that  the  total  count  must  fail.  In  addition,  the  determina- 
tion of  B.  coli  requires  rather  too  elaborate  a  technique  to 
make  it  generally  available.  Up  to  the  present  time  the 
method  appears  to  have  gained  little  favor.  When  the  test 
is  made  sufficiently  early  and  before  the  milk  is  pasteurized 
it  has  been  shown  f  that  the  method  is  an  excellent  one  for 
the  purpose.  The  dairy  in  which  the  method  was  applied 
received  its  supply  from  a  comparatively  limited  area  and 
from  only  twenty  dairymen.  Special  endeavors  were  made 
to  produce  only  superior  milk. 

At  present  the  determination  of  visible  dirt  appears  to  be 
in  greatest  favor  and  has  proven  itself  a  valuable  asset  to  the 
sanitarian  in  checking  up  supplies.  The  ease  with  which 
the  determination  is  made  and  the  tell-tale  nature  of  the 
evidence  presented  speak  highly  in  its  favor.  The  Wizard 
Sediment  Tester  J  has  proved  very  satisfactory  in  our  hands. 
Indeed  the  method  leaves  little  to  be  desired  so  long  as  the 
producer  does  not  become  wise  and  adopt  clarification 
methods  such  as  heavier  strainers  or  centrifugation.  Ob- 
viously the  method  will  fail  as  soon  as  better  clarification 
methods  are  adopted.  Such  clarification  cannot  lessen  the 
number  of  manurial  bacteria  in  milk  or  the  soluble  portion 
of  the  manure,  but  rather  aids  in  their  better  distribution. 
From  these  considerations  it  is  quite  clear  that  we  have  no 
method  for  determining  manurial  pollution  which  does  not 
fail  at  some  critical  point.  The  total  count  and  B.  coli  deter- 
minations fail  in  milk  that  has  been  held  for  some  time  or  has 

*  Except  in  that  samples  taken  before  pasteurization  indicate  general 
sanitary  quality. — J.  S.  M. 

t  Weinzirl,  John,  and  Felder,  H.  A.,  unpublished  data. 
J  The  Creamery  Package  Mfg.  Co.,  Chicago,  111. 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  99 

been  pasteurized,  and  the  sediment  test  fails  af  er  clarifica- 
tion. 

To  overcome  these  difficulties  is  the  purpose  of  the  B. 
sporogenes  determination  as  an  indicator  of  manurial  pollu- 
tion as  proposed  by  Weinzirl  and  Veldee.*  B.  sporogenes 
is  an  intestinal  organism,  and  hence  indicates  manure  when 
found  in  milk;  it  does  not  multiply  at  ordinary  temperature 
at  which  milk  is  held,  and  so  it  truly  indicates  the  pollution 
even  of  milks  kept  for  varying  periods  of  time  and  at  varying 
temperatures;  it  produces  spores  but  these  are  not  killed 
by  pasteurization;  and,  finally,  the  organism  can  be  easily 
and  quickly  determined.21 

Thus  far  most  of  the  work  of  health  authorities  on 
the  dirt  question  has  been  concerned  with  visible  dirt 
as  disclosed  by  the  sediment  tester.f  (See  Plate  4.) 
The  method  is  simple  and  is  effective  for  demonstra- 
tional  purposes.  Its  weakness,  on  the  other  hand,  has 
been  pointed  out  above.  The  B.  sporogenes  test  is 
already  known  in  water  bacteriology,  and  its  develop- 
ment in  relation  to  milk  is  to  be  viewed  with  interest. 

Dirtt  or  Sediment,  Tests  and  Bacteria  Counts. — To 
avoid  possible  confusion  it  is  well  to  note  that,  as  im- 
plied by  Weinzirl  and  shown  by  recent  experiments,22! 
the  quantity  of  sediment  or  visible  dirt  caught  on  the 
disk  by  the  straining  tests  is  no  criterion  of  the  bacteria 
count  of  the  milk.  High-bacteria  milks  may  by  these 

*  Am.  Jour.  Public  Health,  1915,  Vol.  V,  p.  862. 

t  There  are  several  varieties  of  these.  The  New  York  City  Health 
Department  requires  the  test  to  be  applied  in  all  creameries  shipping 
milk  to  the  city,  and  has  established  a  standard  for  use  in  determining 
whether  milk  contains  excessive  dirt.  (Regulations,  March  30,  1915.) 

I  In  these  experiments  (in  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture)  the 
Lorenz  apparatus  was  found  the  most  convenient  and  practical. 


100  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

tests  be  shown  "good,"  and  low-bacteria  milks  "bad." 
This  may  readily  be  understood,  for  the  bacterial  flora 
depends  not  merely  upon  the  amount  of  dirt  con- 
tamination but  also — and  much  more  largely — upon 
the  kind  of  contamination,  the  age  of  the  milk,  and  the 
temperature  at  which  it  has  been  kept.  Hence  the 
dirt  tests  can  throw  light  on  but  one  item  in  milk 
sanitation — viz.,  the  amount  of  sediment  in  unstrained 
milk  (previous  straining  or  clarification  practically 
destroying  the  value  of  the  tests) — and  are  far  from 
being  a  general  criterion  of  the  conditions  of  production 
and  handling. 

THE  TUBERCULIN  TEST 

One  of  the  noteworthy  discoveries  of  modern  sani- 
tary science  is  that  bovine  tuberculosis  may  be  trans- 
mitted to  human  beings  through  the  medium  of  cow's 
milk.*  At  the  same  time  a  test — namely,  the  tuber- 
culin test  f — has  been  perfected  by  which  tuberculosis 
can  be  determined  in  that  important  class  of  cows  which 
are  infected  yet  show  no  physical  symptoms.  This 
adds  to  veterinary  examination  an  exceedingly  valu- 
able diagnostic  agent. 

The  tuberculin  test  appears  to  have  been  first  re- 
quired, in  addition  to  physical  examination,  by  the 

*  This  matter,  with  some  reference  to  the  amount  of  human  tuber- 
culosis of  bovine  origin,  was  touched  upon  in  Chapter  I. 

f  The  test  consists  essentially  in  the  hypodermic  injection  of  an 
emulsion  of  killed  bovine  tubercle  bacilli  (tuberculin).  Animals  in- 
fected with  tuberculosis  react  by  a  marked  rise  in  temperature.  This 
reaction  has  been  accepted  in  the  courts,  as  well  as  in  veterinary  medi- 
cine, as  a  thoroughly  reliable  test  of  a  very  high  degree  of  accuracy 
when  competently  applied. 


THE  SANITARY 

Board  of  Health  of  Montclair,  N.  J.,  in  1907,  which 
specified  that  the  milk  from  reacting  cows  should  be 
excluded  from  the  local  milk  supply.  The  test  was 
opposed  by  a  large  dairy  company  and  the  case  was 
contested  through  the  courts  until  a  complete  victory 
was  won  by  the  Board  of  Health.  The  decision  has 
been  supported  in  other  cases,  so  that  the  legal  status 
of  the  test  is  now  secure. 

The  amount  of  tuberculosis  among  cattle  varies.  Some 
idea  of  the  relative  numbers  of  reactors  which  may  be 
found  by  the  tuberculin  test  may  be  had  from  the  ex- 
perience of  Montclair  when  its  ordinance  went  into 
effect  in  1907:— 

Of  the  New  Jersey  cows  that  had  not  been  previously 
tested,  25  per  cent  reacted.  Many  of  the  figures  that  are 
available  on  the  subject  .  .  .  relate  to  suspected  or  picked 
herds,  whereas  the  percentage  of  reactions  above  mentioned 
represents  conditions  of  herds  taken  practically  at  random 
over  a  considerable  area,  with  the  exceptions  that  they  had 
more  than  the  average  veterinary  inspection,  and  that  they 
had  been  stabled  under  good  conditions.23 

In  individual  herds  as  many  as  a  half  or  even  three- 
quarters  of  the  animals  may  react.  The  suppression 
of  bovine  tuberculosis  by  scientific  methods  is,  apart 
from  milk  sanitation,  an  important  object  of  animal 
husbandry. 

In  the  elimination  of  tuberculosis  from  dairy  herds 
a  serious  economic  question  arises.  Drastic  measures 
will  result  in  a  great  diminution  in  the  herds,  a  large 
financial  loss  to  the  dairymen,  and  a  corresponding 
lessening  in  the  milk  supply  with  a  resultant  increase 


^  MQpERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

in  the  cost  of  the  product.  Elimination  has,  on  the 
other  hand,  been  encouraged  in  some  States  by  legal 
reimbursement  of  the  owner  for  a  large  part  of  the  loss 
due  to  the  slaughter  of  tuberculous  cattle.  However 
the  loss  may  be  met,  it  is  a  real  one  and  means,  directly 
or  indirectly,  a  higher  cost  of  the  milk.  It  is  natural  to 
expect  that  this  increase  in  cost  will  be  reflected  in  the 
retail  price,  perhaps  to  the  extent  of  a  half-cent  a  quart, 
though  it  may  be  partly  met  through  payments  out  of 
public  funds  to  the  dairyman  in  consideration  of  his 
loss  through  slaughtered  cattle. 

State  regulation  for  the  official  testing  and  certifica- 
tion or  condemnation  of  cattle  obtains  in  certain  States. 
It  does  not,  however,  even  where  adequate,  advantage 
neighboring  States,  but  tends  to  make  them,  unless 
their  own  or  Federal  regulation  intervene,  a  dumping 
ground  for  condemned  animals.  Fraud,  too,  is  possible 
in  that  a  positive  tuberculin  reaction  can  be  prevented 
by  covertly  injecting  the  animals  with  tuberculin  shortly 
before  test  and  thus  passing  off  such  " plugged"  cattle 
as  sound. 

If  milk  is  to  be  consumed  raw,  it  can  be  adequately 
protected  from  bovine  tuberculosis  only  by  requiring 
the  tuberculin  test  as  well  as  the  physical  examination 
of  cows.  But  fortunately,  as  will  be  shown  directly, 
there  is  a  practical  alternative  in  the  process  of  pas- 
teurization, which,  moreover,  saves  the  economic  value 
of  the  cattle. 

PASTEURIZATION 

Thus  far  we  have  considered  measures  developed 
under  the  clean  milk  ideal;  we  now  take  up  a  remedy 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  103 

which,  without  dispensing  from  other  precautions, 
cancels  dangers  which,  practically,  cannot  be  other- 
wise dealt  with. 

In  a  general  way  the  dangers  of  raw  milk  have  long 
been  recognized.  The  European  domestic  custom  for 
centuries  has  been  to  heat  milk  before  use, — the  result  of 
the  experience  that  uncooked  milk,  like  uncooked  meat, 
was  dangerous.  This  is  still  to  a  great  extent  the  cus- 
tom, although  since  the  time  of  Pasteur  his  method  of 
heating  milk  only  to  a  temperature  sufficient  to  destroy 
the  great  majority  of  the  germs  present  has  been  looked 
upon  with  increasing  favor,  principally  because  in  this 
way  the  " cooked"  flavor  of  boiled  milk  may  be  avoided. 
But  in  the  United  States  that  tradition  did  not  hold, 
and  the  consumption  of  raw  milk  has  been  the  rule: 
it  has  required  scientific  propaganda  and  official  ac- 
tion to  bring  pasteurization  up  to  its  present  level  of 
favor. 

The  term  "  pasteurization "  has  been  used  in  a 
variety  of  meanings  more  or  less  approaching  the 
original  method  of  Pasteur.  Through  inaccuracy  the 
process  has  not  infrequently  been  misrepresented.  It 
is  essential  that  an  exact  scientific  definition  be  recog- 
nized. Such  a  definition,  applied  to  milk,  has  been 
framed  by  the  Commission  on  Milk  Standards  *  :— 

That  pasteurization  of  milk  should  be  between  the  limits 
of  140°  F.  and  155°  F.  At  140°  F.  the  minimum  exposure 
should  be  20  minutes.  For  every  degree  above  140°  F.  the 

*  The  Commission  on  Milk  Standards  of  the  New  York  Milk  Com- 
mittee is,  in  its  personnel  and  scope,  virtually  a  national  commission, 
and  is  often  so  called.  It  will  be  referred  to  in  these  pages  by  its  short 
title. 


104 


THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 


FIG 


2Cr  iff  4,0 

TIME.  IN  MINUTL5 


time  may  be  reduced 
by  1  minute.  In  no 
case  should  the  ex- 
posure be  for  less  than 
5  minutes. 

In  order  to  allow  a 
margin  of  safety  under 
commercial  conditions 
the  commission  rec- 
ommends that  the 
minimum  temperature 
during  the  period  of 
holding  should  be 
made  145°  F.  and  the 
holding  time  30  min- 
utes. Pasteurizing  in 
bulk  when  properly 
carried  out  has  proven 
satisfactory,  but  pas- 
teurization in  the  final 


12.  TIME   AND   TEMPERATURE   FOR  container  is  preferable. 

MILK  PASTEURIZATION  It  is  the  sense  of  the 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  pathogenic  bac-  commission    that   pas- 

teria  are   killed   at   temperatures  and  teurization  in  the  final 

times  below  those  at  which  the  physical  container     ghould      be 

and  chemical  constituents  of  the  milk  24 

are  affected.    The  neutral  zone  between  encouraged, 
these  two  sets  of  phenomena  permits 

considerable  latitude  in  the  choice  of  the  The  effect  of  prop- 

pasteurization   conditions      (Report   of  er  pasteurization,  as 
Commission  on  Milk  Standards,  N.  Y. 

Milk  Committee,  1913.)  above  defined,   IS   to 

kill  the  vast  majority 

of  the  bacteria  in  milk  without  actually  sterilizing  it. 
Among  the  organisms  destroyed  are  those  of  typhoid 
fever,  diphtheria,  scarlet  fever,  tuberculosis,  septic  sore 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  105 

throat — in  fact,  of  all  the  common  milk-borne  diseases. 
Moreover,  through  the  destruction  of  miscellaneous  bac- 
teria and  their  toxins  the  milk  is  rendered  a  safer — often 
far  safer — food  for  infants,  young  children,  and  invalids, 
with  the  result  of  a  corresponding  reduction  in  gastro- 
intestinal disorders  and  an  increase  in  vital  resistance 
to  other  diseases.  A  number  of  authorities  might  be 
cited  on  this  point.  Dr.  W.  H.  Park  concluded  from 
researches  which  have  been  quoted  in  Chapter  I  that 
"  mother's  milk  is  the  best  milk  for  a  baby  and  pas- 
teurized milk  is  the  next  best." 

Proper  pasteurization  does  not  affect  the  flavor,  odor, 
appearance,  or  cream  line  of  milk,  materially  alter  its 
chemical  components,  nor  diminish  its  digestibility  or 
nutritiousness. 

At  the  same  time,  the  process  is  not  a  cure-all  for  milk 
evils  and,  as  Rosenau  remarks,  should  never  be  used  as  a 
redemption  process  for  bad  milk.  Its  proper  use  is,  in 
the  phrase  of  S.  H.  Ayers,  not  to  try  to  make  a  dirty 
milk  a  clean  milk,  but  to  make  a  clean  milk  a  safe  milk. 

From  the  facts  cited  the  following  conclusions  are 
to  be  drawn: — 

Proper  pasteurization  of  milk  supplies  under  official 
supervision  (with  safeguard  of  the  pasteurized  product) 
is  the  only  absolute  insurance  against  milk-borne  infection. 

Through  the  general  bacterial  reduction  effected  it  renders 
the  milk  a  safer — often  afar  safer — food  for  infant  feeding. 

While  it  should  not  be  taken  to  dispense  from  necessary 
supervision  of  supplies  both  before  and  after  the  process, 
it  affords  an  insurance  unattainable  by  inspection,  medi- 
cal and  veterinary  examinations,  and  laboratory  analysis 
alone,  however  searching  these  may  be. 


106  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 


RAW  OR  PASTEURIZED  MILK 
WHICH  IS  THE  SAFER? 

You  insure  your  life  against  the  time  when  accident 

or  sickness  may  occur. 
You  buy  safe  milk  against  the  time  when  other  milk 

may  spread  disease. 
Because  you  have  been  fortunate  in  keeping  well 

does  not  mean  that  you  do  not  need  safe  milk 

right  now. 
One  man  delivered  milk  for  30  years  and  his  customers 

were  safe  until  an  epidemic  of  typhoid  fever  was 

traced  to  his  supply  and  295  of  his  customers 

were  made  sick  and  10  died.    He  delivered  raw 

milk. 
An  epidemic  of  disease  has  never  been  traced  to 

Perfectly  Pasteurized  Milk. 
's   Milk  is  Perfectly  Pasteurized  and  is 

Pure—  Clean — Safe. 
The  cheapest  form  of  life  insurance  for  yourself  and 

family 's  Milk. 

• — -'s  method  of  Perfect  Pasteurization  does  not 

change  the  taste  of  milk,  nor  alter  its  digesti- 
bility.   It  makes  the  milk  Safe. 

Safeguard  the  health  of  your  family  by  using 

— — 'S  PERFECTLY  PASTEURIZED  MILK 

"  It  costs  you  no  more  than  unsafe  milk  " 
A  postal  will  bring  one  of  our  representatives  to 

explain  our  methods  and  show  you  our  plant  in 

pictures. 

Visit  Our  Milk  Depots 
Order  of  our  drivers,  write  or  telephone 


FIG.  13.  COMMERCIAL  APPEAL  ON  SANITARY  GROUNDS 
This  newspaper  advertisement  emphasizing  the  value  of  pas- 
teurization has  a  publicity  power  not  attained  by  many 
health  bulletins. 

In  1907,  Health  Commissioner  Lederle  of  New  York 
City  took  the  position  that  practically  universal  pas- 
teurization must  be  insisted  upon.  In  spite  of  con- 
servatism and  prejudice,  expert  sentiment  has  steadily 
grown  to  favor  this  view.  The  consensus^of  the  best 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  107 

opinion  is  reflected  by  the  Commission  on  Milk  Stand- 
ards, which  has  made  the  following  unanimous  recom- 
mendation:— 

Pasteurization  is  necessary  for  all  milk  at  all  times,  ex- 
cepting Grade  A,  raw  milk.  The  majority  of  the  commis- 
sioners voted  in  favor  of  the  pasteurization  of  all  milk,  in- 
cluding Grade  A,  raw  milk.25  * 

In  view  of  the  present  status  of  the  matter,  it  is 
scarcely  necessary  here  to  go  into  the  details  of  the 
case  for  pasteurization,  which  have  been  abundantly 
set  down  elsewhere,26  nor  to  dwell  on  objections  which 
have  been  disproved. 


ALL  " "  MILK 

is  raised  within  40  miles  of  the  city,  and  does  not 
leave  our  own  care  from  the  farm  to  your  door. 

It  is  fresh,  normal  milk,  not "  pasteurized  "  scalded, 
or  heated  in  any  way. 

Cattle,  barns,  food  and  water  constantly  inspected 
by  our  own  veterinary,  and  milk  daily  examined  and 
tested  by  Professor  — of  — . 

It  is  a  daily  milk — Inspected,  Bottled,  Shipped, 
Delivered  and  Guaranteed  daily. 


FIG.  14.  COMMERCIAL  APPEAL  ON  SANITARY  GROUNDS 
This  firm,  a  rival  of  the  foregoing,  argues  on  a  decidedly 
different  basis.  This  milk  might  be  guaranteed  clean  and 
fresh,  but  not  necessarily  free  from  infection,  as  was  shown 
by  an  extensive  epidemic  of  septic  sore  throat  traced  to 
the  supply.  The  firm  afterwards  adopted  pasteurization. 

The  matter  of  pasteurization  is  now  one,  not  of  theoretical 
debate,  but  of  practical  application. 

Objections  on  dietetic  grounds  have  been  based  upon 

*  The  Commission's  recommendations  as  to  grades  (see  Appendix  B) 
make  pasteurization  of  Grade  A  milk  optional. 


108  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

unproved  assumptions  and  unsatisfactory  evidence. 
The  recent  reported  increase  of  cases  of  mild  scurvy 
or  similar  nutritional  disease  among  infants  in  New 
York  City  as  a  result  of  the  greater  use  of  pasteurized 
milk  cannot,  even  if  fully  substantiated,  justly  be  used 
as  an  argument  against  the  process,  the  remedy  being 
merely  a  little  orange  juice,  or  other  antiscorbutic,  in  the 
diet  of  the  infant.  To  give  over  a  great  means  of  safety 
on  account  of  a  minor  disadvantage  would  be  absurd. 
Special  medical  requirements  may,  if  necessary,  be  met 
by  permitting  the  sale  of  the  highest  grade  of  raw 
milk,  as  is  recommended  by  the  Commission  on  Milk 
Standards. 

The  pendulum  of  medical  opinion  appears  now  to  be 
swinging  in  the  direction  of  favoring  even  boiled  milk. 
The  scalding  of  milk  as  a  domestic  precaution  previous 
to  infant  feeding  and  other  uses  has  long  been  a  com- 
mon practice  in  certain  European  countries,  and  the 
American  prejudice  against  the  practice  seems  now  to 
be  dying  out  in  the  absence  of  dependable  evidence 
regarding  scurvy  and  rickets  supposedly  caused  by 
heated  milk.27 

Other  objections  deal,  not  with  the  scientific  process, 
but  with  possible  abuses  in  its  application;  such  objec- 
tions should  properly  be  taken  merely  as  cautions. 
Thus,  it  is  true  that  pasteurization  and  repasteuriza- 
tion  may  be  used  by  unscrupulous  dealers  as  a  cloak 
for  bad  milk,  that  milk  may  be  sold  for  pasteurized 
which  has  not  been  adequately  treated,  that  the  adop- 
tion of  pasteurization  ordinances  does  not  necessarily 
mean  their  proper  enforcement.  But  these  are  all 
simply  questions  of  supervision.  It  is,  of  course,  neces- 


PLATE  5.  (a)  HOME  PASTEURIZER 

When  reliable  pasteurized  milk  cannot  bs  obtained,  milk  may  be  pasteurized 
in  the  home,  for  infant-feeding,  by  means  of  this  apparatus,  or  even  with 
ordinary  kitchen  utensils  (see  p.  109).  A  still  readier  means  of  safety  is 
simply  to  heat  the  milk  to  boiling.  Effective  home  heating  ensures  that 
no  infection  enter  the  household  by  medium  of  milk,  and  illustrates  private 
prophylaxis  as  opposed  to  public  prevention.  The  latter,  however,  affords 
general  protection,  while  the  private  process,  even  when  adopted,  may  be 
inefficiently  performed.  (Courtesy  of  the  New  York  Milk  Committee  and 
Dr.  Chas.  E.  North.) 


(6)  RESULTS  OF  CLARIFICATION 

The  two  bottles  on  the  left  show  sediment  and  slime  removed  from  milk  of 
cows  with  normal  udders,  by  the  clarifier.  The  two  bottles  on  the  right 
show  sediment  and  slime  removed  by  the  clarifier  from  the  milk  of  two 
cows  with  sore  udders,  which  caused  a  septic  sore  throat  outbreak  of 
669  cases,  with  14  deaths.  (Courtesy  of  the  New  York  Milk  Committee 
and  Dr.  Chas.  E.  North.) 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  109 

sary  not  only  to  establish  the  proper  definition  of  pas- 
teurization but  also  to  exercise  adequate  control  of  the 
commercial  process  *  and  supervision  of  the  product 
both  before  and  after,  and  this  will  require  more  ex- 
tensive work  than  in  the  case  of  raw  milk  supplies. 
Such  is  the  sum  and  substance  of  the  opposition,  once 
loud,  now  dying  away,  from  uncompromising  raw-milk 
advocates. 

Methods  of  Pasteurization 

Milk  may  be  pasteurized  in  the  home  f  or  commer- 
cially. The  latter  way,  under  adequate  supervision, 
is  the  more  effective  and  economical.  Various  types  of 
machinery  for  commercial  pasteurization  have  been 
devised,  of  varying  degrees  of  efficiency.28  What  is 
called  the  •" flash"  method,  by  which  the  milk  is  kept 
heated  for  perhaps  two  minutes  and  then  rapidly 
cooled, , was  formerly  most  in  vogue,  but  has  been  super- 
seded to  a  large  extent  by  the  " holding"  method, 
which  is  much  more  reliable.  (Plates  8,  10.)  In  this 

*  For  specifications  as  to  inspections,  temperature  records,  and  bac- 
teriological tests,  see  3d  Report  of  the  Commission  on  Milk  Standards. 

t  The  following  practical  method  of  home  pasteurization  of  a  one- 
quart  bottle  of  milk  is  given  in  the  Health  News  of  the  New  York  State 
Department  of  Health  for  September,  1916.  It  is  stated  that  this 
process  ensures  thorough  pasteurization  without  undesirable  changes. 
(It  is  well,  when  possible,  to  check  such  methods  by  use  of  a  ther- 
mometer.) 

"  1.  Boiling  2^/2  quarts  of  water  in  a  large  agate  sauce-pan,  or  better 

"2.  Boiling  2  quarts  of  water  in  a  10-pound  tin  lard  pail,  placing 
the  slightly  warmed  bottle  from  ice  chest  in  it,  covering  with  a  cloth 
and  setting  in  a  warm  place.  At  the  end  of  one  hour  the  bottle  of  milk 
should  be  removed  and  chilled  promptly.  The  water  must  be  boiled  in 
the  container  in  which  the  pasteurization  is  to  be  done." 

For  a  method  of  home  pasteurization  in  infant's  feeding  bottles  see 
Plate  5. 


110  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

process  the  milk  is  held  at  pasteurizing  temperature 
for  a  longer  time  though  at  a  lesser  heat.  Of  the  two 
methods  only  the  latter  complies  with  the  definition 
which  has  been  quoted.  Even  with  this  process  there 
is  a  possibility  that  the  milk  may  be  contaminated 
through  being  run  into  unsterile  containers,  a  danger 
which  may  be  obviated  by  running  the  hot  milk  im- 
mediately into  well-sterilized  bottles  or  by  pasteuriz- 
ing in  the  final  container.29  (Plate  14.)  This  last 
method,  which  is  considered  ideal,  is  now  being  tried 
under  commercial  conditions. 

The  proper  care  of  pasteurized  milk  does  not  differ 
materially  from  that  of  raw  milk,  although  there  are 
biological  reasons  for  taking  somewhat  greater  care  with 
the  former.  It  has  been  shown,  however,  that  properly 
pasteurized  milk  normally  sours  like  raw  milk;  hence 
the  supposed  objection  that  pasteurization  induces 
putrefaction  does  not  hold.  As  Rosenau  says,  "the 
bugaboo  that  nature's  danger  signal  is  destroyed  in 
pasteurized  milk  vanishes  before  the  facts." 

General  Pasteurization  the  Insurance  against  a  General 

Danger 

The  necessity  for  universal,  or  nearly  universal,  pas- 
teurization which  is  now  being  urged  more  and  more 
emphatically  by  the  highest  authorities  arises  from  the 
fact  that  even  with  the  greatest  practicable  precautions 
unpasteurized  public  milk  supplies  cannot,  in  the  light  of 
experience,  be  considered  free  from  a  greater  or  less  ele- 
ment of  danger. 

Pasteurization  is  most  obviously  needed  in  the  larger 


PLATE  6.  (a)  PRIMITIVE  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  MILK  INDUSTRY 

While  it  is  the  dairyman,  not  the  dairy,  which  counts,  the  man  who  conducts 
his  business  under  these  conditions  is  not  likely  to  pay  much  attention  to 
essential  sanitary  methods  in  milking  and  handling  milk.  (Bull.  56, 
U.  S.  Hygienic  Laboratory.) 


(b)  INSANITATION  PLUS  WASTE  ON  THE  FARM 

Besides  being  contrary  to  decency  and  sanitation,  this  not  uncommon  condi- 
tion means  the  waste  of  much  liquid  manure,  one  of  the  most  valuable 
assets  of  the  farm.  (26th  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry, 
U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agriculture.) 


PLATE   7.  PRIMITIVE  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  MILK  INDUSTRY 
Children  entrusted  with  the  important  work  of  washing  milk  bottles,  in  a 
shed  which  is  a  mere  apology  for  a  dairy  house.    (Bull.  56,  U.  S.  Hygienic 
Laboratory.) 


A  milk  house  inviting  dirt  and  rubbish  and  used  as  a  repository  for  miscel- 
laneous objects.     (Bull.  56,  U.  S.  Hygienic  Laboratory.) 


PLATE  8.  ADVANCED  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  MILK  INDUSTRY 
Complete  Modern  Milk  Plant,  showing:  (a)  Milk  Clarifier,  (b)  Heating  and 
Holding  Tanks,  (c)  Milk  Cooler  (covered  type),  (d)  Storage  Tank  for 
Cold  Milk,  (e)  Bottle-filling  and  Capping  Machine.  This  picture  assem- 
bles units  such  as  are  shown  on  a  larger  scale  in  Plates  9-11.  (Courtesy 
of  Dr.  Chas.  E.  North  and  the  New  York  Milk  Committee.) 


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PLATE  11.  ADVANCED  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  MILK  INDUSTRY  (continued) 

Cooling  and  Bottling.  After  pasteurization  the  milk  is  run  over  the  Cooler, 
F,  which  reduces  it  within  10  seconds  to  a  temperature  of  38°  F.  A  dust- 
less  atmosphere  is  essential  to  the  protection  of  milk  which  is  run  over 
open  coolers.  It  is  also  necessary  that  all  apparatus  and  piping  with  which 
milk  comes  in  contact  be  capable  of  being  thoroughly  cleansed  and  ster- 
ilized. After  cooling,  the  milk  passes  to  a  vat,  G,  provided  with  me- 
chanical  agitation,  and  thence  to  the  rotary  fillers  H  H,  by  which  the 
bottles,  previously  sterilized,  are  mechanically  filled  and  capped.  This 
type  of  filler  permits  ready  inspection  of  bottles.  Employees  medically 
examined  weekly.  (Courtesy  of  H.  P.  Hood  and  Sons,  Boston.) 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  111 

cities,  where,  fortunately,  facilities  in  the  shape  of 
modern  commercial  milk  plants  are  often  found.  In 
such  centers  it  is  rapidly  gaining  ground,  and  the  bulk 
of  the  milk  supply  in  certain  cities  is  now  pasteurized. 
Many  large  milk  concerns  have  taken  up  the  process 
as  a  means  of  self-protection  against  the  possible  con- 
sequences of  unpasteurized  milk. 

In  smaller  cities  and  towns,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
need  of  pasteurization  has  been  largely  unrecognized 
and  has  not  made  the  progress  that  conditions  demand. 
It  should  be  noted  that  the  principles  of  grading  rec- 
ommended by  the  National  Commission  on  Milk 
Standards  (Appendix  B)— which  allow  for  only  one 
kind  of  unpasteurized  milk,  in  the  highest  grade — are 
intended  to  apply  to  small  as  well  as  to  large  cities  and 
towns.*  Communities  which  do  not  choose  or  manage 
to  adopt  this  standard  suffer  under  greater  or  less  dis- 
advantage or  danger.  Some  of  the  smaller  communi- 
ties have,  indeed,  adopted  the  clean  raw  milk  ideal. 
Montclair,  N.  J.,  and  Palo  Alto,  Cal., — to  name  two 
widely  separated  towns — have  under  expert  adminis- 
tration, carried  that  ideal  to  a  high  point.  They  have 
considered  it  their  chief  object  to  secure  clean  raw  milk 
and  to  minimize  its  possible  dangers. f  But  in  both 
these  cases  it  is  to  be  observed  that  all  market  milk 

*  The  latest  report  of  the  National  Commission  on  Milk  Standards 
states  that  "for  the  use  of  small  dealers  in  cities  and  small  producers  for 
towns  and  villages,  efficient  pasteurizers  costing  less  than  $200  are 
available.  The  Commission,  therefore,  thinks  that  milk  ordinances  for 
towns  and  villages,  as  well  as  for  large  cities,  and  also  state  milk  laws, 
should  provide  compulsory  pasteurization,  except  for  Grade  A  raw 
milk." 

t  Pasteurized  milk  is,  however,  provided  for  under  the  regulations 
of  these  towns. 


112  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

sold  raw  must  meet  the  requirements  which  the  Com- 
mission classification  prescribes  for  the  highest  grade. 
The  centralization  of  pasteurization,  bottling,  and  dis- 
tribution at  a  few  plants  or  a  single  plant  in  the  smaller 
cities  and  towns  would  promote  economy  and  simplify 
sanitary  supervision.  (See  pages  171  and  250.) 

The  value  of  pasteurization  in  making  possible  the 
use  of  milk  from  cows  which  would  otherwise  be  ex- 
cluded by  the  tuberculin  test  is  not  sufficiently  recog- 
nized. In  the  East  pasteurization  has  gained  a  foot- 
hold which  seems  likely  to  be  permanent.  In  other 
parts  of  the  country,  especially  in  the  South  and  in 
the  far  West,  agitation  for  the  tuberculin-testing  of 
dairy  cows  and  opposition  to  the  pasteurization  of 
milk  appear  to  be  in  full  sway,  and  the  conditions  seem 
to  be  very  similar  to  conditions  in  the  East  five  and 
ten  years  ago.  It  is  certain  that  in  due  time  the  South 
and  West  will  come  to  realize  the  importance  of  pas- 
teurization and  will  give  it  the  same  prominence  which 
it  has  already  gained  in  the  East. 

In  brief,  pasteurization  is  the  most  powerful  single 
instrument  that  milk  sanitation  possesses  to-day.  Com- 
bined with  adequate  bacteriological  control,  it  meets 
conditions  which  cannot  be  met  by  unsupplemented 
clean  milk  methods.  Theorists  may  say  that  it  should 
be  unnecessary,  but  inexorable  conditions  leave  no 
choice. 

In  summing  up  the  matter  of  pasteurization  we  can- 
not do  better  than  quote  the  remarks  of  Professor 
William  T.  Sedgwick,  in  his  presidential  address  before 
the  American  Public  Health  Association,  on  American 
achievements  and  failures  in  public  health  work: — 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  113 

We  have  as  yet,  and  in  spite  of  ample  knowledge,  failed 
to  make  our  American  milk  supplies  what  they  should  be. 
This  is  partly  because  we  have  been  too  timid  to  insist  that 
good  milk  not  only  costs  more  to  make  but  is  worth  more  and 
must  therefore  be  paid  for,  and  partly  because  we  have  not 
yet  taught  the  public  as  we  should  that  the  only  safe  milk 
is  cooked  milk,  and  for  infants,  milk  that  is  pasteurized — 
preferably  in  the  final  container.  I  have  myself  lived  through 
the  last  year  of  the  period — now  happily  remote — when  no 
milk  was  pasteurized  by  anybody;  through  the  next  in  which 
only  pioneers  like  Nathan  Straus  preached  or  practiced  pas- 
teurization, while  many,  if  not  most,  physicians  deprecated 
the  practice;  through  the  one  following,  in  which  the  scales 
began  to  turn  in  favor  of  pasteurization;  and  into  the  present 
when  almost  no  one  fully  informed  on  the  subject  actively 
opposes  pasteurization.  And  yet,  even  to-day,  some  phy- 
sicians are  shortsighted  enough  to  tolerate  if  not  to  recom- 
mend the  general  use  of  raw  milk,  which  still  constitutes 
the  great  bulk  of  the  milk  used  by  infants  and  adults  all 
over  the  land.  Such  use  of  raw  milk  we  must  count  as  long 
as  it  lasts  one  of  our  worst  public  health  failures.30 

CLARIFICATION  AND  OTHER  PROCESSES 
Ordinary  farm  milk  contains  more  or  less  dirt,  as  well 
as  natural  waste  from  the  udder  of  the  cow,  and  often 
pus  and  bacteria  from  udder  inflammations  unnoticed 
or  unnoticeable.  By  passing  the  milk  through  a  centrif- 
ugal machine,  or  "clarifier,"  these  matters  are  largely 
thrown  out  in  a  residuum  which  consists  partly  of  sub- 
stances normally  present  in  milk  and  partly  of  those 
which  are  adventitious  or  abnormal.31  (Plate  5.)  The 
quantity  of  this  is  stated  by  North  to  be  ordinarily 
about  one  pound  to  every  six  thousand  quarts.  The 
process  has  come  into  wide  use  in  milk  plants  as  a  trade 


114  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

measure,  to  remove  the  visible  dirt  which  would  inter- 
fere with  the  sale  of  bottled  milk.  It  has  thus  been 
used  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  to  take  out  dirt  that 
should  have  been  kept  out.  At  the  same  time  the 
process  has  safety  and  decency  values  and  is  worthy  of 
favor  when  used  in  connection  with  proper  supervision 
of  supplies  and  methods.  Its  exact  status,  however, 
has  not  yet  been  settled,  and  present  evidence  does 
not  warrant  the  requirement  of  general  clarification, 
as  has  been  proposed  in  some  quarters.  (For  a  summary 
of  advantages  and  disadvantages  see  3d  Report  of  the 
National  Commission  on  Milk  Standards.) 

The  scope  of  this  volume  does  not  permit  mention 
of  the  various  processes  of  milk  adjustment  and  manipu- 
lation which  are  practiced  in  the  industry  or  discus- 
sion of  how  far  these  may  be  legitimate  or  the  reverse. 
A  mechanical  process  which  has  come  into  some  promi- 
nence in  recent  years  is  that  of  homogenization  of  milk 
or  cream.32  In  this  process  the  fat  globules  are  forcibly 
broken  up  so  as  to  be  in  more  intimate  mixture  with 
the  liquid.  The  process  makes  possible  also  the  ad- 
mixture of  inferior  fats.  It  is  chiefly  used  in  ice  cream 
manufacture,  but  has  other  uses,  among  them  being  the 
production  of  an  apparently  greater  richness  in  cream. 
There  is  no  objection  to  homogenization  in  itself,  but 
fraudulent  practice  is,  of  course,  possible.  The  product 
should  be  fully  labelled. 

PUBLICITY  OF  RATINGS 

The  desire  to  more  than  maintain  merely  a  minimum 
standard  has  led  in  many  instances  to  the  publication 
of  the  ratings  of  milk  supplies.  (The  town  of  Mont- 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  115 

clair,  N.  J.,  was  perhaps  the  earliest  to  adopt  this 
method  in  order  to  secure  the  co-operation  of  its  citizens 
in  favoring  the  best  milks.)  Such  ratings  have  been 
given  out  in  reports,  bulletins,  and  newspapers,  in 
answer  to  inquiries,  or  posted  publicly.  Besides  general 
observations,  publication  has  been  made,  by  name,  of 
dairy  scores,  laboratory  analyses,  and  verbal  descrip- 
tions of  the  sources  of  supplies. 

Such  publication  is  advantageous  with  the  more 
inquiring  citizens,  but  such  value  is  largely  limited  to 
small  communities  where  that  class  is  numerous.  Even 
the  intelligent  reader,  moreover,  may  find  it  difficult  to 
interpret  columns  of  figures  for  different  kinds  of  data, 
while  the  characterization  of  milks  as  "  excellent," 
"good,"  "poor,"  etc.,  is  but  a  makeshift  for  accurately 
defined  grades.  Where,  however,  official  grades  have 
been  established,  supplies  may,  if  desired,  be  further 
rated  according  to  bacteria  test,  etc.,  within  the  grades. 

The  greatest  effect  of  such  publication  is,  after  all, 
on  the  dealer.  Even  if  only  a  few  consumers  read  the 
list,  the  dealer  is  disturbed  to  find  himself  rated  low  and 
is  stimulated  to  make  some  effort  to  improve  his  stand- 
ing. But  this  effect  is  obtained  in  much  more  efficient 
degree  under  the  grading  system,  to  which  we  shall 
give  next  consideration. 

CONTESTS,  CONFERENCES,  EXHIBITIONS 

Contests  in  which  dairymen  compete  for  prizes  for 
the  best  milk  have  been  held  by  Federal  and  various 
State  authorities,  usually  in  connection  with  confer- 
ences, exhibitions,  and  fairs.  Such  contests  and  the 
lectures  and  demonstrations  which  accompany  them 


116  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

have  been  an  important  educational  force  with  dairy- 
men and  to  a  lesser  degree  with  the4  public.  It  must  be 
admitted,  however,  that  they  do  not  (nor  are  they 
intended)  to  go  far  toward  the  solution  of  the  general 
milk  problem;  rather  are  they  a  useful  auxiliary.  Fair 
competition  is  to  be  encouraged,  but  can  have  full  play 
only  when  degrees  of  merit  are  generally  recognized  in 
the  market. 

THE  GRADING  OF  MILKS 

We  now  come  to  the  most  recent  and  the  logical  de- 
velopment in  the  administrative  control  of  milk  sup- 
plies. 

There  was  a  time  when  just  two  general  kinds  of 
milk  were  recognized — good,  or  salable,  and  bad,  or 
unsalable.  As  the  situation  grew  more  complex,  and 
bacteriological  analysis  came  into  use,  it  was  seen 
that  the  matter  was  not  so  simple.  It  then  appeared 
to  those  who  made  a  special  study  of  milk  supplies, 
that,  while  the  supplies  in  large  cities  might  be  made 
to  comply  with  certain  minimum  legal  requirements, 
few — perhaps  none  with  certainty — could  be  relied 
upon  as  fit  for  the  use  of  infants  and  invalids.  It  was 
recognized  as  impossible  to  bring  the  general  supply 
up  to  this  desired  standard.  Hence  the  introduction 
of  the  milk  depot  for  supplying  special  milk  to  the 
babies  of  the  poor  and  the  devising  of  a  special  grade 
of  milk — namely,  certified  milk— medically  supervised, 
for  the  babies  of  the  well-to-do.  Then,  gradually,  it 
came  to  be  seen  that  these  two  special  kinds — the  one 
being  on  a  philanthropic  basis  and  the  other  costing  a 
luxury  price,  could  not  solve  the  whole  problem.  Mean- 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  117 

while  the  situation  had  intensified;  milk-borne  disease 
became  more  and  more  insistent;  a  new  factor  had 
arisen  in  the  shape  of  commercial  pasteurization;  the 
necessity  of  public  control  became  more  pressing. 
To-day  the  problem  is  how  to  exert  such  control  in 
a  way  which  is  scientific,  just  to  all  parties  concerned, 
equal  to  sanitary  needs,  yet  economically  practicable. 

Progressive  sanitary  authorities  have  recognized  the 
fallacy  of  attempting  to  make  all  market  milks  conform 
to  the  same  standard  by  lumping  Together  raw  and  pas- 
teurized milks,  milks  for  infant  feeding  and  milks  for 
ordinary  household  use.  Distinctions  must  be  made. 
The  result  has  been  the  establishment  of  grades  of  milk 
publicly  distinguished  by  means  of  simple  labelling. 

Such  classification  must  logically  be  based  on  the 
uses  to  which  milk  is  put  and  the  corresponding  sanitary 
criteria.  The  simplest  division  of  uses  is:  (1)  milk  for 
infants,  (2)  milk  for  adults,  (3)  milk  for  cooking  and 
manufacturing  only.  This  requires  three  corresponding 
grades.  The  conspicuous  criteria  are  bacteriological 
character  and  the  application  or  non-application  of 
pasteurization.  It  is  essential  that  the  grades  be  few, 
clearly  defined,  and  readily  understood. 

The  idea  of  milk  classification  is  not  new.  A  rudi- 
ment of  it  exists  in  the  setting-aside  of  the  special  grade 
of  certified  milk,  which,  however,  has  never  played  .a 
quantitively  important  part  in  general  milk  supplies. 
Dr.  Ernest  Lederle,  then  Health  Commissioner  of  New 
York  City,  advocated  as  long  ago  as  1907  the  grading 
of  milks  in  some  such  manner  as  has  since  been  effected 
in  that  city.  Dr.  A.  D.  Melvin,  Chief  of  the  Bureau 
of  Animal  Industry,  United  States  Department  of 


118  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

Agriculture,  proposed  at  about  the  same  time  a  classi- 
fication (see  below)  which  has  done  much  to  further 
the  grading  idea.  Since  then  other  systems  have  been 
devised.  The  principle  is  so  rapidly  gaining  acceptance 
that  the  diversity  of  the  different  systems  may  become 
a  problem  in  itself.  As  close  conformity  as  possible  to 
one  generally  accepted  plan — e.  g.,  that  of  the  Com- 
mission on  Milk  Standards,  cited  below,  would  be  de- 
sirable. 

Grading  Systems 

The  following,  in  outline,  are  some  representative 
plans  of  classification.  (For  a  fuller  description  of 
grading  systems,  see  Appendix  B.) 

1.  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture. 

Class  A.  Certified  milk  or  its  equivalent. 

B.  Inspected  milk  (raw,  tuberculin-tested). 

C.  Pasteurized  milk. 

(This  classification  is  interesting  as  being,  apparently, 
the  first  attempt  to  devise  sanitary  grades.  It  was  pro- 
posed by  Dr.  A.  D.  Melvin,  in  1908.  It  does  not,  how- 
ever, express  the  ideas  of  to-day  as  do  the  following.) 

2.  National  Commission  on  Milk  Standards  (of  the 
New  York  Milk  Committee).* 

Grade  A.  Raw. 

Pasteurized. 

B.  Pasteurized. 

C.  Pasteurized  (for  cooking  or  manufac- 
turing purposes  only). 

*This  classification  applies  also  to  cream. 


THE  SANITARY  FACTORS  119 

3.  New  York  City* 

Grade  A.  Raw. 

Pasteurized. 

B.  Pasteurized. 

C.  Pasteurized  (for  cooking  or  manufac- 

turing purposes  only). 

4.  New  York  State  Sanitary  Code.\ 

Grade  A.  Raw. 

Pasteurized. 

B.  Raw. 
Pasteurized. 

C.  Raw. 
Pasteurized. 

Some  municipalities  have  partly  recognized  the 
grading  idea  through  establishing  standards  for  such 
milks  as  " Inspected"  t  or  " Pasteurized,"  and  the 
principle  is  being  increasingly  adopted  in  milk  legisla- 
tion. There  is  nothing  that  would  so  quickly  bring 
about  the  desired  approximation  to  uniformity  in 
methods  of  milk  regulation  as  this  principle.  The 
grading  idea  has  long  been  recognized  in  Continental 

*  This  classification  applies  also  to  cream.  It  is  closely  similar 
to  the  preceding,  there  being  some  difference  in  the  exact  require- 
ments. 

fThis  classification  applies  also  to  cream  if  labelled  or  otherwise 
designated  for  purposes  of  sale.  Certified  milk  is  specifically  authorized 
as  an  extra  class  and  the  term  protected.  It  will  be  observed  that  this 
is  a  much  less  strict  classification  than  the  others,  on  account  of  its 
admitting  raw  milk  to  all  three  grades.  It  is,  however,  noteworthy  as 
being  the  first  state  system  of  grading. 

t  The  term  "inspected  milk"  has  been  used  in  various  significations 
and  is  unsatisfactory. 


120  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

countries,  though  developed  from  a  chemical  rather 
than  from  a  bacteriological  point  of  view.* 

With  the  grading  system  the  education  of  the  dairy- 
man and  of  the  consumer  about  which  so  much  is  said 
would  come  automatically.  The  one  would  learn  ex- 
actly what  is  required  of  him;  the  other,  exactly  what 
he  is  getting. 

An  important  concomitant  of  the  system  is  the 
tonic  effect  on  administration.  Health  authorities 
would  find  themselves  freed  of  ineffective  routine  and 
would  at  the  same  time  have  to  make  their  methods  of 
administration  so  thorough  as  to  bring  out  the  full 
effect  of  the  plan.  It  scarcely  need  be  said  that  grading 
required  but  not  fully  enforced  would  be  a  conspicuous 
failure  and  only  discredit  an  excellent  principle. 

*  In  Germany  such  classifications  as:  (1)  Market  milk,  (2)  Skim  milk, 
(3)  Infants'  milk,  are  common.  (Sommerfeld,  "Handbuch  der  Milch- 
kunde."  Cf.  Rolet,  "Lait  Hygienique.")  We  have  already  referred 
to  the  Continental  practice  of  domestic  heating  of  milk,  which  partly 
takes  the  place  of  official  safeguards,  though  pasteurization  is  now  ex- 
tensively practiced  in  Continental  countries.  In  England,  apparently, 
the  grading  idea  has  received  little  attention,  and  pasteurization  of 
market  milk  has  not  made  great  headway. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  ECONOMIC  FACTORS 

Economic  Value  of  Milk  Production 

The  economic  value  of  milk  as  a  food  has  already 
been  made  clear  in  preceding  pages,  and  a  glance  at 
statistics  presented  elsewhere  (Appendix  A)  will  indi- 
cate the  importance  of  milk  production  and  distribu- 
tion as  an  industry  of  the  very  first  magnitude. 

Quite  aside  from  dairy  specialization,  milk  produc- 
tion may  be  called  an  essential  function  of  the  ordinary 
farm.  Dairying  is  an  integral  part  of  general  farming. 
The  dairy  cow  makes  economical  use  of  roughage  and 
pasturage,  and  returns  to  the  farmer  milk  for  his  own 
use  as  well  as  for  sale.  Furthermore  the  wastes  of  the 
cow  stable  have  a  large  value  as  fertilizer.  Dairying  is 
often  said  to  be  the  " backbone"  of  agriculture. 

Again,  the  relative  economy  in  milk  production  is 
much  greater  than  in  beef  production.  Good  dairy 
cows  produce  human  food  in  the  form  of  milk  far  more 
economically  than  food  products  can  be  obtained  in 
the  form  of  beef,  pork,  or  mutton.  This  is  a  fortunate 
fact  for  densely  populated  regions  where  intensive  use 
must  be  made  of  agricultural  resources. 

Decline  of  Dairying  in  Certain  Regions 

But,  in  spite  of  this  relative  economy  in  milk  produc- 
tion, there  are  regions  where  dairy  farming  is  in  turn 

121 


122  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

found  comparatively  unprofitable.  A  table  given  in 
Appendix  A  shows  a  striking  decline  in  numbers  of 
milch  cows  in  certain  States  the  while  populations  are 
steadily  on  the  increase.  These  States  are  those  of 
New  England  and  the  Middle  Atlantic  seaboard  where 
cities  large  and  small  abound.  While,  through  better 
breeding,  there  may  be  some  increase  in  the  produc- 
tivity of  the  milk  stock,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  de- 
cline in  milk  production  in  these  regions  is  very  marked. 
The  lower  cost  of  milk  production  in  more  distant 
regions,  makes  it  more  economical  for  milk  contractors 
to  buy  milk  and  pay  the  railroad  charges  from  two  or 
three  hundred  miles  away,  and  many  of  the  nearer 
farmers  cannot  meet  the  competition.  This  condition 
is  hard  on  the  latter  and  also  adds  greatly  to  the  diffi- 
culties of  milk  sanitation,  but  it  is  a  natural  economic 
result  of  the  growth  of  urban  areas,  their  effect  on  the 
value  of  neighboring  agricultural  land,  and  their 
reaching-out,  octopus-like,  for  ever-increasing  milk 
supplies. 

THE  CRUX  OF  THE  ECONOMIC  QUESTION 

While  sanitarians  and  health  officials  have  been 
agitating  for  the  sanitary  improvement  of  milk  supplies, 
an  insistent  complaint  has  gone  up  on  the  part  of  the 
producer  to  this  effect:  that  everything  used  in  the  pro- 
duction of  milk  has  increased  in  cost  during  recent  years, 
while  the  price  of  milk  has  failed  to  rise  proportionately. 
Sometimes  the  assertion  is  even  stronger,  viz.,  that 
the  price  obtained  by  the  farmer  has  remained  sta- 
tionary or  has  even  decreased.  It  is  from  the  dairy 
farmer  that  this  complaint  comes  with  ever-increasing 


THE  ECONOMIC  FACTORS  123 

force;  to  him  the  additional  trouble  and  expense  of 
complying  with  sanitary  regulations  are  the  latest  ag- 
gravating factor  In  the  situation. 

Since  the  above  statement  seems  to  sum  up  the  com- 
plaint of  the  producer,  it  must  be  examined  in  some 
detail,  especially  as  it  runs  counter  to  the  impression 
of  many  householders  that  the  price  of  milk  to  the 
consumer  has  risen  at  a  rapid  rate  and  is  partly  respon- 
sible for  the  increased  cost  of  living. 

THE  PLIGHT  OF  THE  FARMER 

In  many  regions  the  cry  goes  up  from  the  dairy 
farmer  that  he  is  being  "  forced  out  of  business. "  It 
is  asserted  that  many  farmers  to-day  are  producing 
milk  at  a  loss  and  that  many  more  are  going  through 
the  processes  of  dairy  farming  with  little  or  no  return 
for  their  investment  and  labor.  "It  is  claimed/7  says 
an  official  of  the  United  States  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, "that  only  about  one-third  of  the  dairy  cows  in 
New  York  State  are  kept  at  a  profit.  If  this  is  true  of 
New  York,  it  is  probably  true  of  many  other  States/'  1 
Testifying  at  a  Federal  hearing  on  milk  rates,  at  Boston 
in  1916,  Professor  Frederick  Rasmussen  of  the  New 
Hampshire  State  College  of  Agriculture,  is  reported  as 
asserting  from  computations  that  the  "average  rnilk" 
in  that  State  was  produced  at  a  slight  loss.2  (This 
statement,  though  indefinite  as  reported,  may  ap- 
parently be  taken  to  mean  that  more  farmers  produc- 
ing milk  in  New  Hampshire  do  so  at  a  loss  than  at  a 
profit.)  Several  years  ago  a  farmer,  "reported  to  be 
the  most  successful  in  New  England,  in  a  public  address 
stated  that  the  price  received  by  him  for  milk  during  the 


124  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

past  year  gave  him  no  profit  whatever  on  his  product, 
but  brought  him  out  just  even.  If  this  is  true  of  the 
most  successful  farmer  in  New  England,  what  is  to  be 
said  of  the  great  majority  of  the  men  engaged  in  milk 
production?"  3  Magazine  articles  have  appeared  under 
the  titles,  "The  marketing  of  milk — how  farmers  are 
driven  out  of  business  and  the  cost  of  living  is  forced 
up7'  and  "How  New  England  dairy  farmers  are  driven 
out  of  business."  *  While  such  statements  are  usually 
couched  in  general  terms,  they  are,  coming  from  many 
quarters,  significant. 

We  have  already,  indeed,  in  Chapter  II,  referred  to 
the  plaint  of  the  farmer,  but  it  is  so  outstanding  a 
feature  of  the  milk  situation  to-day  that  a  few  further 
words  here,  before  proceeding  to  its  economic  basis, 
will  not  be  out  of  place.  Some  of  the  more  specific 
complaints  of  the  farmer  are  expressed  in  the  following 
passage  from  the  editorial  column  of  a  Southern  news- 
paper:— 

The  dairyman  is  a  manufacturer  of  milk.  His  cows  are 
his  machines — and  very  delicate  ones.  They  are  liable  to 
disease  and  death.  At  the  best  they  will  not  produce  milk 
the  year  around,  probably  only  two-thirds  or  three-quarters 
of  it.  He  must  have  enough  of  them  to  allow  some  of  them 
to  occasionally  "loaf  on  their  job."  If  he  has  much  of  a 
herd  he  must  keep  a  registered  bull  costing  in  the  thousands, 
often.  ...  [A  high-bred  cow]  will  cost  as  much  as  $300  in 
her  heiferhood,  in  many  cases.  .  .  . 

These  machines  and  their  product  alike  require  great  care 
and  attention  to  prevent  them  from  becoming  diseased 
themselves  or  being  the  means  of  diseasing  the  dairyman's 

*  Current  Opinion)  November  and  December,  1915. 


THE  ECONOMIC  FACTORS  125 

customers.  They  must  be  tested  for  tuberculosis,  and,  if 
they  develop  it,  he  must  kill  them  or  have  them  killed.  The 
milkman's  stables  have  been  proved,  in  some  cases  of  careless 
dairymen,  to  be  foci  of  disease,  especially  typhoid  and  con- 
sumption. Therefore,  he  must  submit  to  sanitary  regulation 
and  examinations  that  the  public  may  be  assured  of  pure 
milk,  for  disease  germs  increase  rapidly  in  milk.  Where 
the  product  is  not  pure  it  is  one  of  the  most  dangerous  of 
foods,  as  pure  milk  is  one  of  the  best  possible. 

Not  only  must  his  milk  vessels  be  scrupulously  clean,  but 
there  is  considerable  labor  and  expense  involved  in  making 
absolutely  clean  the  bottles  in  which  he  delivers  the  milk. 
He  must  be  watchful  .  .  .  that  his  help  may  not  be  possible 
" typhoid  carriers,"  or  otherwise  liable  to  pass  disease  germs 
into  the  milk  from  their  hands  .  .  .  ;  his  cows  must  also 
be  clean  before  they  are  milked.  All  this  that  his  customers 
may  have  pure,  clean,  wholesome  milk. 

All  of  this  means  a  greater  expense  than  was  ever  dreamed 
of  by  the  milkman  of  old,  who  drove  up  to  your  door  and 
ladled  out  a  pint  or  a  quart  of  milk  from  a  big  can  into  the 
can  or  kettle  you  presented  to  him  for  your  daily  serving. 
Yet  we  have  given  here  only  an  incomplete  skeleton  of  the 
modern  dairyman's  extraordinary  expenses. 

His  ordinary  expenses  are  greater,  because  the  cost  of  feed 
is  so  much  higher  than  it  was  a  score,  or  even  a  decade,  of 
years  ago.  Nor  will  the  health  authorities  allow  him  to  keep 
his  herd  in  such  a  cheap  barn  as  that  in  which  the  10-cents-a- 
quart  *  milkman  often  kept  his  cows—dark,  ill-ventilated, 
perhaps  rarely  cleaned. 

He  is  not  only  entitled  to  some  return  on  the  capital  in- 
vested in  his  milk-producing  machines  and  his  tools,  but  also 
to  day  wages  as  a  workman.  No  matter  how  much  help  he 
may  have,  he  must,  if  he  would  have  his  business  thrive, 

*  Milk  is  more  expensive  in  the  South  than  elsewhere. — J.  S.  M. 


126  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

begin  his  day's  work  at  2  o'clock  in  the  morning  or  some 
other  such  heart-rending  hour,  to  gather  his  product  and 
start  it  off  to  his  customers — for  there  is  no  middleman  in 
the  dairy  business.  Rising  in  the  small  hours  of  the  morn- 
ing to  begin  work  by  lamplight,  he  sometimes  knows  no  rest 
until  some  hours  after  darkness  has  come  again. 

Yet  his  profits  on  the  nutritious  article  of  food  he  sells 
bear  no  comparison  with  those  of  the  grocer,  butcher  or 
baker. 


To  demand  food  that  is  entirely  free  from  suspicion  of 
carrying  disease  to  ourselves  and  our  children,  and  then  to 
quarrel  because  we  must  pay  more  for  it  is  utterly  childish.4 

The  foregoing  was  prefaced  with  the  statement  that 
"pure  milk,  clean  milk,  cannot  be  sold  at  the  price  of 
dirty  milk,"  and  was  entitled  "We  must  pay  the  cost." 

It  is  certainly  worth  examining  how  far  the  extra 
costs  that  are  putting  the  farmer  out  of  business  are 
unavoidable  and  how  far,  therefore,  "we,"  the  con- 
sumers, must  pay  them. 

Is  the  Farmer  Getting  a  Fair  Price? 

This  burning  question,  which  lies  at  the  very  root  of 
the  economic  problem,  has  been  well  discussed  in  a 
paper  by  Mr.  Ernest  Kelly  of  the  Dairy  Division, 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  who  writes 
as  follows  (italics  inserted)  :— 

Within  the  last  few  years  there  has  been  much  dissatis- 
faction among  both  milk  producers  and  consumers.  The 
dairy  farmers  claim  that  they  are  not  receiving  enough  for 
their  milk,  while  consumers  complain  that  they  are  forced  to 
pay  exorbitant  prices  for  the  same  article.  It  is  apparent 


THE  ECONOMIC  FACTORS  127 

to  anyone  who  has  looked  below  the  surface  of  this  question, 
that  many  dairy  farmers  to-day  are  not  receiving  a  price  for 
their  milk  which  will  yield  a  fair  profit.  ...  In  view  of  the 
increased  cost  of  producing  and  handling  milk  and  consider- 
ing its  high  food  value,  consumers  in  many  cities  are  paying 
a  price  which  is  much  too  low  to  allow  a  reasonable  profit  to 
the  producer.  The  dairyman  receives  at  his  shipping  station 
from  about  2  cents  to  5  cents  per  quart  for  his  milk,  depend- 
ing upon  the  time  of  year  and  upon  the  city  in  which  his 
product  is  marketed.  Probably  the  bulk  of  market  milk  in 
this  country  is  sold  by  the  farmers  at  about  3)^  cents  per 
quart,  whereas  the  price  to  the  consumer  in  the  various  cities 
ranges  from  about  6  cents  to  10  cents  per  quart,  depending 
upon  the  locality  and  upon  whether  the  milk  is  sold  " loose" 
or  bottled. 

It  is  extremely  doubtful  if  the  dairyman  in  many  cases  re- 
ceived enough  for  his  milk  to  pay  for  the  bare  cost  of  production 
at  these  prices.  Bulletin  73,  issued  by  the  experiment  station 
at  Storrs,  Conn.,  gives  the  cost  of  producing  milk  on  the 
experimental  farm  for  a  period  of  five  years.  When  the  milk 
produced  by  the  herd  was  figured  as  worth  4  cents  a  quart  at 
the  farm,  the  business  was  conducted  at  a  loss  every  year  out 
of  the  five.  Where  the  milk  was  figured  at  5  cents  a  quart  at 
the  farm,  the  books  showed  a  net  profit  four  years  out  of  the 
five.  Results  similar  to  these  have  been  obtained  at  several 
other  stations.5 

Mr.  Kelly  presents  in  his  paper  some  exceedingly  in- 
teresting figures  which  the  present  writer  has  elaborated 
and  brought  up  to  date  and  plotted  in  Figs.  15-20.  A 
glance  at  these  charts  will  show  that  the  rise  in  the  retail 
price  of  milk  as  compared  with  some  other  staple  food 
products  has  been  relatively  slow.  The  figures  upon 
which  these  curves  are  based  were  compiled  by  the 


128 


THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 


Government  from  the  most  important  industrial  cities 
throughout  the  United  States.6  The  level  of  100  shown 
in  each  chart  is  the  base  of  the  relative  prices, — that 
is,  the  price  indices  relate  to  a  value  of  100  repre- 
senting the  average  price  for  each  food  during  the 
period  1890-99,  so  that  they  give  percentage  variations 
and  may  be  directly  compared.  In  the  last  of  the  series 


•  FRESH  EGGS 


*.floo>S^N'">  >«<><«  f*«»o>§i»N^<»''"«» 

FIG.  15.  RELATIVE  RETAIL  PRICES,  1890-1915 
Milk  and  Fresh  Eggs 

a  combined  curve  is  given  for  the  five  staple  foods  as 
compared  with  milk.  It  will  be  seen  that,  with  the 
exception  of  wheat  flour,  these  have  increased  in  price 
more  rapidly  than  milk,  and,  taken  all  together, 
markedly. 

The  economy  of  milk  as  a  food  has  already  been  re- 
ferred to  in  Chapter  I,  but  may  here  be  re-emphasized. 
It  was  there  pointed  out  that  milk  is  ordinarily  one 


THE  ECONOMIC  FACTORS 


129 


of  the  cheapest  of  foods, — a  fact  reinforced  by  the  con- 
siderations that  it  is  free  from  waste  material,  is  easily 
digested,  is  indispensable  for  infants  and  children,  and 
may  be  used  either  without  preparation  or  in  ready 
combination  with  other  food  materials. 


IfU 

160 
/SO 

m 

130 

liO 

no 

90 
80 
70 

;\ 

•• 

: 

V 

; 

WLK 
POTATOES 

•\ 

f: 

«> 

/ 

• 

/ 

/ 

v 

•" 

'•• 

,t 

;* 

•'• 

••' 

'\ 

/' 
'/ 

/ 

\ 

:, 

/ 

f 

— 

-fc* 

• 

\ 

V 

'• 

§^<v 

FIG.  16.  RELATIVE  RETAIL  PRICES,  1890-1915 
Milk  and  Potatoes 

We  may  now  examine  the  complaint  of  the  farmer 
that  the  cost  of  producing  milk  has  increased  greatly 
in  recent  years  without  a  commensurate  increase  in  the 
price  of  the  product.  Data  on  this  point  are  set  forth 
in  Fig.  21.  This  shows  the  relative  increases  in  the  two 
great  items  of  cost  of  farm  labor  and  of  cattle  feeds, — 
items  which  constitute  80  to  85  per  cent  of  the  total 
farm  cost  of  milk  production.  Labor  for  the  dairy 


130 


THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 


farm  is  hard  to  secure  at  any  price,  for  many  farm  hands 
object  to  milking  and  will  not  hire  out  where  they  have 
to  do  this  kind  of  work.  In  the  chart  the  value  100,  as 


z/o 

200 
190 
180 
170 

/to 
/so 

140 
ISO 
IZO 
110 

too 

90 

;' 

\ 

: 

MILK 
KOUND  STEAK 

/ 

„•' 

/ 

*• 

-^ 

/ 

-•• 

..• 

/ 

/ 

/' 

'•' 

/ 

/ 

.•' 

.•* 

/ 

/ 

/— 

—  * 

" 

... 

**  " 

FIG.  17.  RELATIVE  RETAIL  PRICES,  1890-1915 
Milk  and  Round  Steak 

before,  represents  the  ten-year  average  of  prices  from 
1890  to  1899,  inclusive.  This  chart  is  taken  from  a 
paper  by  Mr.  Kelly  on  factors  influencing  the  cost  of 
milk  to  the  consumer.7  Mr.  Kelly  describes  the  manner 
of  constructing  the  dotted  curve  and  draws  conclusion 
from  it  as  follows  (italics  inserted) : — 


THE  ECONOMIC  FACTORS 


131 


From  the  source  already  noted,*  figures  were  compiled 
showing  the  increased  cost  of  all  the  various  staple  grains 
which  are  used  for  cattle  feeding,  and  also  the  increased 
cost  of  hay.  These  two  sets  of  figures  were  combined,  giving 


£30 
£20 

{ 

•• 

zio 

zoo 

:. 

': 

f90 

'" 

•MM 

— 

— 

fl 

R.fi 

IL 

£ 

< 

TV 

: 

/SO 

• 

no 

/ 

160 

1 

ISO 

'" 

HO 

0% 

I3Q 

s 

*s 

f 

^ 

/ 

no 

• 

/ 

' 

110 

y 

{ 

100 

•'* 

\ 

: 

/ 

—  • 

—  * 

90 

- 

-• 

" 

V 

.•' 

FIG.  18.  RELATIVE  RETAIL  PRICES,  1890-1915 
M ilk  and  Bacon 

the  two  varieties  of  feeding  stuffs  (grain  and  hay),  the  im- 
portance which  they  would  play  in  the  feeding  of  an  average 
dairy  cow.  From  this  combination  of  figures  was  plotted  a 
curve  called  the  "feed  curve."  A  separate  curve  was  plotted 

*  Bulls.  94,  99,  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Commerce  and  Labor. 


132 


THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 


for  the  increased  cost  of  farm  labor.  Finally,  these  two 
curves,  viz.:  the  feed  curve  and  the  labor  curve,  were  com- 
bined into  one,  giving  each  of  the  two  items  the  weight  which 
would  be  attached  to  it  in  the  maintenance  of  the  average 
cow.  The  combination  of  the  feed  curve  and  the  labor  curve 
is  represented  by  the  dotted  line.  While  this  curve  does  not 
represent  the  total  cost  of  milk  production,  it  does  represent 
about  83%  of  the  total  cost,  and  the  other  factors  which  go 


/to 

/so 

140 
/30 
IZo 
IIQ 
/OO 
90 
80 

.* 

^•MM 

MILK 
VHEfiTFLOUR 

/' 

s 

*/ 

< 

; 

y 

/ 

'•* 

a 

;' 

\ 

•/ 

f 

\ 

/* 

'\ 

/ 

/ 

s? 

-^ 

' 

\ 

J 

\, 

... 

... 

.•• 

s 

^ 

^  v\ 

FIG.  19.  RELATIVE  RETAIL  PRICES,  1890-1915 
Milk  and  Wheat  Flour 

to  make  up  the  other  17%  have  probably  increased  in  at 
least  as  rapid  a  ratio. 

After  studying  this  curve  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  aver- 
age milk  consumer  is  paying  much  less  for  milk  than  is  war- 
ranted by  the  increased  cost  of  production,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
increased  cost  due  to  the  more  elaborate  system  of  distribution 
now  in  force. 

Finally,  Mr.  Kelly  draws  the  following  general 
conclusion: — 


THE  ECONOMIC  FACTORS 


133 


The  consumer  is  already  buying  his  milk  at  a  low  price  as 
compared  with  many  other  foods,  and  if  he  wishes  a  clean  milk 
he  must  expect  to  pay  more  in  the  future  than  he  does  at  present, 


f90 

/eo 

/70 
/60 

tso 

WO 
130 
120 
110 

90 

t 

/ 



WLK 
FIVE  STAPLE  FOODS 

/ 

.•' 

'' 

; 

/ 

^X 

/ 

t 

.'• 

... 

.'* 

/ 

' 

•' 

f 

t 

.- 

•*'. 

.-. 

. 

:, 

/ 

f* 

«*• 

*• 

"•^ 

'. 

j 

,* 

^--rvrrj^to^f-coCT-S      ~'V'*)»-S<*«^<000^(yiV}^<0 

FIG.  20.  RELATIVE  RETAIL  PRICES,  1890-1915 
Milk  and  Five  Staple  Foods 

unless  a  more  economical  method  of  production  and  distribution 
can  be  installed. 

Another  Aspect 

Such  considerations  strongly  support  the  case  of  the 
farmer.  Still,  they  require  some  qualification.  The 
matter  has  another  side  which  we  have  not  yet  con- 
sidered. It  is  well  put  by  Mr.  Kelly  (italics  inserted)  :— 

The  dairy  farmer  himself  is  not  blameless.  Sometimes  his 
business  is  carried  on  in  a  wasteful,  extravagant  manner. 
Unprofitable  cows  are  kept,  and  uneconomical  methods  of 


134 


THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 


feeding  are  followed.  It  is  unfair  to  ask  the  milk-consuming 
public  to  pay  him  a  profit  on  such  a  slipshod  system,  and 
yet  that  is  what  is  often  expected.8 

This  widespread  condition  of  agricultural  and  busi- 
ness inefficiency  is  fostered  by  the  fact  that  a  great 


170 


/60 


/SO 


,40 


130 


REW/L  PUCE 


/?/&  CATTLE:  FEED 


1890-94  1895-99  1900-04  1905-09        1910-11 

FIG.  21.  RETAIL  PRICE  OF  MILK  COMPARED  WITH  COSTS  OP 

PRODUCTION 
Five-year  periods,  1890-1911. 

deal — perhaps  the  bulk — of  market  milk  comes  from 
small  farms  where  it  is  regarded  simply  as  a  by-product. 
iThe  farmer  keeps  a  few  cows  for  his  personal  use  and 
sells  the  excess  product.  He  gives  the  subject  of  milk 
production  just  as  little  attention  as  he  can.  The  state 
of  affairs  is  described  in  further  detail  by  another  Gov- 
ernment agricultural  expert: — 


THE  ECONOMIC  FACTORS 

'$90.69 


$68.55 


$50.73 


135 


$29.72 


$34.82 


$3.82 


N^  Wo.  I 


No.1 


FIG.  22.  PROFIT  FROM  DIFFERENT  Cows 

Average  annual  value  of  product  from  two  cows  for  three  years. 
Observe  the  scant  net  profit  on  Cow  No.  2,  compared  with  No.  1,  as 
shown  by  the  two  bars  at  the  right.  The  values  of  his  cows  as  pro- 
ducers are  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  dairy  farmer,  yet  few 
farmers  have  any  exact  knowledge  as  to  which  cows  in  the  herd  are 
bringing  in  a  profit  in  relation  to  the  cost  of  their  keep  and  which 
ones  are  kept  at  a  loss  as  "boarders"  or  "rabbits."  Yet  such 
knowledge  can  be  gained  simply  by  keeping  records  for  individual 
cows  and,  when  possible,  making  butter-fat  tests.  Such  differences 
as  the  above  are  very  common  in  dairy  herds,  and  greater  ones  are 
often  met  with,  —  facts  which  must  be  considered  in  connection  with 
the  complaint  from  the  farmer  that  "there  is  no  money  in  the  milk 
business."  (Circulars  67,  122,  Ohio  Agricultural  Experiment  Station.) 

As  I  visit  the  dairymen  of  this  country,  I  am  impressed 
with  the  statements  that  they  make  in  regard  to  the  amount 
of  milk  received  per  cow.  Some  dairymen  say  their  cows  are 


136  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

averaging  about  one  gallon  each,  while  others  say  theirs 
give  three.  Why  this  difference?  There  are  several  things 
that  might  assist  in  this  condition  of  affairs,  yet  I  believe  it 
is  principally  accounted  for  by  the  difference  in  cows.  A 
profitable  cow  costs  little  more  to  keep  than  an  unprofitable 
one;  yet  farmer  after  farmer  is  keeping  these  scrub  cows.  It 
is  also  a  question  of  the  dairyman  not  really  knowing  which 
are  his  profitable  cows  and  which  the  "  boarders. "  Too 
many  think  they  have  no  time  for  the  Babcock  test  and  the 
scales.  If  dairymen  are  to  produce  milk  on  an  economical 
basis,  they  must  start  with  better  cows.  Then  they  must 
properly  care  for  and  feed  these  cows  if  best  results  are  to 
be  obtained.  Successful  dairymen  are  using  silos,  growing 
alfalfa,  etc.;  therefore  other  farmers  should  study  these 
matters. 

Again,  as  one  travels  over  this  country,  he  cannot  help 
being  impressed  with  the  many  kinds  of  waste  that  are  con- 
tinually occurring  on  our  farms.  The  farm  machinery  that 
should  last  a  number  of  years  is  allowed  to  deteriorate  rapidly 
because  it  is  not  properly  housed  and  cared  for.  One  of  the 
most  valuable  assets  to  the  farm,  namely,  the  liquid  manure, 
is  allowed  to  waste  by  soaking  into  the  ground  near  the  barn. 
Even  the  solid  manure  is  thrown  under  the  eaves,  and  the 
soluble  elements,  which  are  the  best  form  of  plant  food,  are 
allowed  to  be  lost.  So  we  might  mention  loss  after  loss  that 
is  continually  occurring  on  our  farms,  mainly  because  of  poor 
management.  I  can  hardly  see  how  the  dairyman  can  ex- 
pect the  consumer  to  pay  for  such  losses;  yet  that  is  really 
what  he  wants  when  he  allows  these  conditions  to  exist,  and 
cries  for  better  prices.9 

From  this  it  is  clear  that,  while  justice  must  be  done 
to  the  farmer  in  a  fair  price  for  his  product,  he  must,, 
if  he  is  to  stay  in  business,  use  business  methods.  Not> 
that  he  can  be  expected  to  become  an  agricultural  or 


THE  ECONOMIC  FACTORS  137 

business  expert,  but  he  should  certainly  take  advantage 
of  the  expert  information  and  advice  now  available  to 
him.  One  great  drawback  is  most  farmers'  apparent 
inability  to  make  use  of  printed  matter.  Federal, 
state,  and  college  authorities  are  continually  publishing 
literature  that  should  be  in  the  hands  of  milk  producers, 
yet  it  is  surprising  how  few  avail  themselves  of  this 
free  information  as  well  as  that  contained  hi  dairy 
periodicals.  There  are  indeed  hopeful  signs  in  the 
increasing  attention  being  paid  to  high-grade  stock,  to 
cow-testing  for  the  purpose  of  weeding  out  animals 
which  are  kept  at  a  loss,  and  to  other  points  of  man- 
agement. But  it  is  evident  that  a  great  deal  of  agricul- 
tural extension  work — to  take  knowledge  personally  to 
the  farmer — will  be  needed  to  bring  about  the  requisite 
improvement  in  dairy  husbandry. 

There  has  naturally  come  about  considerable  spe- 
cialization of  dairy  farms.  The  larger  these  are  and  the 
more  closely  organized  and  managed,  the  greater  will 
be  the  profit.  This  development  has  suggested  that 
the  small  dairy  farmer  may  eventually  be  crowded  out 
of  business.  How  far  this  may  come  to  pass  is  hard  to 
tell,  but  the  economic  function  of  the  dairy  cow  on  the 
ordinary  farm  indicates  that  we  must  still  continue  to 
depend  upon  the  ordinary  farmer  for  a  large  share  of 
the  milk  supply.  So  far  as  sanitation  goes,  by  the 
simple  methods  outlined  in  Chapter  III  sanitary  milk 
can  be  produced,  at  a  moderate  cost,  on  almost  any 
kind  of  farm  by  ordinary  dairymen. 

A  certain  number  of  all  businesses  fail,  and  one  can- 
not hope  that  every  last  dairyman  can  be  made  suc- 
cessful. But  standards  can  certainly  be  raised.  And 


138  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

it  is  to  be  hoped  that  not  only  will  justice  be  done 
to  the  farmer,  but  also  that  he  will  make  use  of 
the  means  of  his  own  advancement,  thereby  bene- 
fiting simultaneously  the  consuming  public  and  him- 
self. 

FACTORS  IN  THE  FINAL  COST  OF  MILK 

The  various  factors  which  make  up  the  total  cost  of  a 
unit  of  milk  may  logically  be  considered  under  the 
following  heads:  (1)  Production,  (2)  Transportation, 
(3)  Handling  in  country  or  city  milk  plant,  and  (4)  De- 
livery to  the  consumer.  A  detailed  consideration  of 
these  would  split  them  up  into  a  number  of  items  to 
be  figured  separately.  Thus,  for  production,  which 
includes  all  that  is  chargeable  to  the  farmer,  the  sub- 
heads would  be:  interest  on  investment;  insurance, 
taxes,  etc.;  cost  of  feed;  labor  cost;  miscellaneous 
charges;  and  hauling  to  the  station  or  milk  plant  when 
the  farmer  does  not  retail  his  own  product.* 

A  number  of  special  studies  dealing  with  the  costs  of 
the  various  processes  and  stages  have  been  made,  some 
of  the  findings  of  which  are  gathered  together  in  Ap- 
pendix D.  In  considering  cost  figures  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  very  few  dairy  farmers  keep  even 
approximately  accurate  records,  so  that  at  the  present 
time  it  is  impossible  to  get  data  of  this  kind  except 
by  means  of  special  investigation;  and  also  that,  on 
account  of  trade  reticence,  it  is  difficult  to  obtain  in- 

*  Further  details  on  figuring  milk  costs  are  given  in  the  paper  by 
Kelly  already  referred  to  and  in  the  various  special  studies  cited  in 
Appendix  D. 


THE  ECONOMIC  FACTORS  139 

dicative  figures  from  dealers,  although  the  large  com- 
panies of  course  figure  carefully  their  own  particular 
items.  Data  on  production  costs  have  been  gathered 
by  various  experiment  stations,  and  show  considerable 
differences  according  to  locality. 

Systems  and  rates  of  transportation  as  complica- 
ting factors  have  elsewhere  been  referred  to  (Chap- 
ter II). 

The  cost  of  distribution  has  come  in  for  special  at- 
tention. A  large  proportion  of  the  total  cost  of  milk 
is  chargeable  to  this  item.  The  Boston  Chamber  of 
Commerce  investigation  showed  that  "the  greatest 
single  item  of  cost  is  delivery  to  the  family  trade, 
equaling  the  total  cost  of  collection  in  the  country,  the 
operation  of  country  plant,  railroad  transportation, 
and  city  plant  expenses."  In  some  cases  it  approaches 
the  price  paid  to  the  producer.  A  notable  study  of  the 
distribution  situation  in  one  city,  Rochester,  N.  Y., 
has  been  made  by  Dr.  John  R.  Williams,10  who  esti- 
mated the  difference  in  cost  between  an  assumed  model 
system  of  distribution  and  the  system  actually  exist- 
ing among  the  distributers.*  This  difference  was  sur- 
prisingly large,  the  extra  cost  due  to  the  duplication  of 
routes  and  dispersion  of  customers  under  trade  condi- 
tions figuring  to  some  $500,000  yearly  for  that  city. 
Bottle  losses  were  also  a  very  considerable  item,  esti- 
mated at  about  $10,000  a  year.  Such  charges  are,  of 
course,  paid  by  the  consumer  in  the  retail  price.  Dr. 
Williams  presents  statistical  details  from  investigation 

*  The  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture  has  collected  figures  showing 
large  variation  in  the  economy  of  distribution  as  practiced  by  different 
dealers.  (Milk  Plant  Letter  15.) 


140  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

and  experiment,  and  concludes  with  a  plea  for  cen- 
tral delivery  under  municipal  management  of  milk 
supplies. 

Various  practical  objections  have  been  brought 
against  the  idea  of  a  central  delivery,  either  privately 
or  municipally  managed.  A  number  of  such  objections 
were  collected  by  the  Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce 
committee.11  The  idea  has  apparently  not  been  tried 
in  practice.  As  a  trade  measure  such  centralization 
would  necessitate  the  actual  formation  of  companies 
large  enough  to  undertake  all  the  operations  connected 
with  large  volumes  of  milk,  for  delivery  is  so  vital  and 
competitive  a  part  of  local  milk  trade  that  it  is  difficult 
to  see  how  mere  co-operation  could  be  made  to  harmo- 
nize with  individual  interests.  Otherwise  the  indi- 
vidual dealer  would  be  left  so  limited  scope  for  initiative 
and  activity  in  competition  that  general  discontent 
would  be  inevitable,  and  either  complete  amalgamation 
or  the  restoration  of  previous  conditions  would  be  a 
forced  conclusion.  Co-operative  plans  and  municipaliz- 
ation  will  be  further  discussed  in  Chapter  V.  A  general 
criticism  of  such  proposals  is  that  they  minimize  or 
omit  practical  difficulties  and  dangers  in  organization 
and  operation. 

The  tendency  of  the  trade  in  the  cities  to  become 
concentrated  in  the  hands  of  comparatively  few  dealers 
or  companies  is  a  hopeful  factor  in  the  delivery  situa- 
tion. It  is  clear  that  such  concentration  favors  greater 
efficiency  and  economy  in  handling  in  all  respects.  It 
may  be  added  that  the  sale  of  milk  from  properly 
supervised  stores  is  another  means  of  lowering  the  cost 
of  distribution. 


THE  ECONOMIC  FACTORS  141 

THE  MILK  DEALER 

In  what  may  be  called  the  semi-developed  state  of 
milk  industry  the  farmer  produces  and  distributes  his 
own  product,  perhaps  deriving  a  greater  or  less  part 
of  his  supply  from  his  neighbors.  In  the  developed 
state  the  milk  dealer  is  differentiated  as  a  distinct  in- 
dividual. The  dealer  collects  the  milk  brought  in  by 
producers,  either  at  a  country  bottling  plant  or,  more 
frequently,  at  a  city  plant  to  which  the  separate  sup- 
plies have  been  brought,  usually  by  railroad.  The 
dealer  thus  specialized  is  not  only  able  to  carry  on 
milk  processes  on  a  large  scale,  but  also  can  dispose  of 
surplus  milk  through  the  channels  of  the  manufacture 
of  butter,  cheese,  etc.  (Establishments  for  these  last 
uses  are  called  "  creameries,"  a  term  sometimes  loosely 
applied  to  milk  depots  or  milk  plants  proper.)  Urban 
conditions  not  only  make  it  difficult  or  impossible  for 
the  farmer  to  distribute  his  product  himself,  but  further 
tend  to  force  the  small  dealer  either  to  go  out  of  business 
or  to  amalgamate  with  others  in  the  formation  of 
businesses  of  economic  size, — hence  the  large  dealer 
of  to-day. 

The  dealer  thus  occupies  a  central  point  from  which 
he  can  see,  and  to  a  certain  degree  control,  all  the 
ramifications  of  the  industry.  But,  while  he  possesses 
an  advantage  in  being  more  of  a  business  man  than 
is  the  farmer,  and  may  use  this  advantage  unscru- 
pulously, his  position  is  not  always  an  easy  one.  Often, 
as  Dr.  Charles  E.  North  wrote  several  years  ago,  "he 
finds  himself  opposed  on  the  one  hand  to  the  public 
health  authorities  in  the  city  where  he  markets  his 


142  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

product  and,  on  the  other  hand,  he  is  opposed  by  the 
milk  producers  from  whom  he  secures  his  raw  material. 
In  some  districts  these  antagonisms  have  become  so 
acute  that  the  large  dealer  has  a  tendency  to  believe 
he  must  look  upon  the  dairy  farmers  who  produce  milk 
and  the  health  authorities  who  supervise  the  industry 
as  permanent  enemies  of  the  milk  business."  Obviously, 
the  remedy  for  this  is  mutual  understanding,  fair 
dealing,  and  the  adjustment  of  aggravating  conditions. 

Dealer  and  Farmer 

The  general  situation  between  dealer  and  farmer  has 
already  been  considered  in  Chapter  II  and  need  not  be 
further  discussed  here.  Projects  to  eliminate  the  mid- 
dleman, wholly  or  partly,  as  a  supposed  special  ob- 
stacle to  the  solution  of  the  milk  problem,  have  been 
offered,  the  merits  of  which  will  be  discussed  in  Chap- 
ter V.  We  may  consider  for  the  present  the  concrete, 
practical  plan  of  farmers1  co-operative  milk  depots  in 
country  districts.  One  of  the  principal  recommenda- 
tions of  the  Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce  committee 
of  investigation  into  conditions  in  New  England  * 
dealt  with  this  idea  as  follows: — 

A  plant,  [reported  the  committee]  well  built  and  equipped 
would  cost  from  $2,000  to  $20,000,  according  to  its  capacity 
and  the  number  of  operations  carried  on.  The  plant  could 
be  owned  by  the  farmers  and  business  men  of  the  locality. 
Money  could  be  raised  by  the  issuing  of  non-voting  preferred 
shares  to  the  business  men  and  investors  locally,  and  voting 
common  share  to  the  farmers. 

*  See  Appendix  E. 


THE  ECONOMIC  FACTORS  143 

The  producers  would  then  have  facilities  for  the  disposal 
of  their  product  in  the  manufacturing  of  butter  or  cheese, 
if  they  are  unable  to  secure  satisfactory  prices  from  the 
dealers. 

Producers  may  look  forward  to  receiving  more  from  their 
product  when  they  cease  to  allow  others  to  furnish  them 
their  cans,  to  collect  (taking  all  grades,  little  or  much),  to 
dictate  price  and  to  process,  grade  and  market  their  milk  and 
cream. 


Co-operative  creameries  have  failed  in  the  past  largely 
because  of  inefficient  management  (a  poor  bookkeeping  sys- 
tem, no  allowance  for  depreciation,  no  allowance  for  surplus, 
no  safeguard  preventing  one  or  two  persons  from  gaining 
control  of  the  company,  and  the  lack  of  knowledge  of  new 
methods  of  testing,  manufacturing  and  marketing). 

A  milk  plant  is  important  to  the  prosperity  of  the  com- 
munity. A  certain  small  plant,  not  well  equipped  or  man- 
aged, in  one  of  our  New  England  localities,  paid  the  farmers 
last  year  nearly  $100,000,  which  brought  as  much  money 
into  the  community  as  many  manufacturing  establishments 
employing  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred  men  each. 

If,  as  this  committee  reported,  "at  present  the 
general  farmer  has  very  little  voice  in  determining  the 
price  to  be  paid  for  his  milk  and  cream,"  and  "takes 
what  the  dealer  offers,  which  is  generally  the  price  for 
no  special  grade  of  product  and  is  influenced  largely  by 
the  yearly  surplus,"  and  is  otherwise  at  a  disadvan- 
tage,— then  this  proposal  of  co-operative  plants  is  one 
seriously  to  be  considered.  (For  further  details  see  the 
report  of  the  committee.12) 


144  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

The  care  of  surplus  milk  in  the  country  was  con- 
sidered by  the  committee  just  quoted  to  be  a  very 
important  matter: — 

In  addition  to  producing  good,  clean  milk  and  cream  and 
grading  it,  the  producers,  to  assure  themselves  of  greater 
returns  for  their  product,  would  do  well  to  process  it  and  to 
make  arrangements  to  care  for  the  surplus.  Too  much  em- 
phasis cannot  be  laid  upon  the  taking  care,  in  the  country, 
of  the  surplus;  manufacturing  it  into  butter,  skim  milk  or 
cheese.  As  pointed  out  previously,  this  surplus  item  is  one 
of  the  most  serious  causes  for  the  present  chaotic  condition  in 
the  industry. 

The  above  plan,  it  will  be  seen,  proposes  for  the  coun- 
try a  concentration  at  the  farmer's  end  and  for  his  ad- 
vantage similar  to  that  which  now  exists  at  the  dealer's 
end  in  cities. 

Many  large  dealers  buy  milk'  on  a  sliding  scale  which 
varies  the  price  both  according  to  month  and  according 
to  percentage  of  butter  fat.  For  years  past  farmers 
have  been  breeding  cattle  for  quantity,  not  quality. 
The  result  has  been  a  great  increase  in  numbers  of 
cows,  such  as  Holsteins,  which  yield  milk  in  large  quan- 
tity but  with  a  low  butter-fat  test.  In  the  case  of  New 
York  State  the  Legislature  was  induced  to  take  account 
of  this  situation  and  lowered  the  legal  minimum  of 
total  solids.  In  order  to  secure  a  sufficient  percentage 
of  cream  the  sliding  scale  of  prices  according  to  fat 
was  adopted  by  dealers.  This  is  obviously  a  fair  way 
of  buying  milk,  for  it  makes  the  distinction  between, 
say,  Jersey  and  Holstein  cows  and  between  high-test 
and  low-test  Holsteins. 

Certain  large  dealers  have  also  established  premiums 


S'S 


THE  ECONOMIC  FACTORS  145 

for  milk  of  better  sanitary  quality.  A  noteworthy  ex- 
ample of  this  idea  is  the  payment  for  low  bacteria  counts 
which  is  made  under  the  North  plan  of  milk  produc- 
tion (page  78). 

Such  differential  payments  for  milk  are  all  in  the 
right  direction  as  recognizing  the  commercial  value  of 
quality  and  should  be  complemented  by  differential 
prices  for  the  retail  product. 

For  the  purpose  of  avoiding  uncertainty  dealers  enter 
very  generally  into  contract  relations  with  dairy  farmers 
according  to  which  certain  quantities  of  milk  are  de- 
livered at  schedule  prices  over  greater  or  less  periods 
of  time.  These  contracts  usually  fix  the  monthly  prices 
for  six  months  at  a  time.  One  of  the  large  New  York 
companies  has  recently  adopted  experimentally  the 
new  departure  of  monthly  bidding. 

The  cry  of  " monopoly"  is  not  infrequently  raised  by 
the  farmer,  and  it  is  true  that  as  an  individual  he  often 
has  no  choice  to  whom  and  at  what  price  he  is  to  sell  his 
milk.  The  farmer's  remedy,  as  we  have  pointed  out  in  a 
previous  chapter,  is  organization  to  protect  and  ad- 
vance his  interests.  Certainly,  as  an  individualist  he 
is  at  a  vast  disadvantage.  There  are  some  signs  that 
the  farmers  are  beginning  to  recognize  this  fact.  Col- 
lective action,  though  spasmodic,  has  been  effected  in 
some  instances,  and  the  farmers'  "milk  strike"  has 
recently  come  into  existence  in  earnest. 

ANOMALIES  OF  MILK  AS  A  COMMODITY 

Milk  as  a  commodity  is  characterized  by  two  peculiar 
facts  which  are  to  be  considered  in  connection  with 
the  solution  of  the  milk  problem: — 


146  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

1.  Stability  of  Retail  Price. — While  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction of  milk  and  the  available  supply  vary  from 
month  to  month,  the  price  to  the  consumer  remains 
constant  through  long  periods.  The  explanation  of 
this  seems  to  lie  in  the  regularity  of  consumption,  which 
enables  the  dealer  to  depend  on  an  average  price  to 
cover  fluctuations  in  cost,  and  in  the  avoiding  of  dif- 
ficulties which  would  arise  from  variations  in  the  price 
of  a  commodity  delivered  on  standing  order.  At  the 
same  time  custom  has  brought  about  what  one  dealer 
has  called  "the  tyranny  of  the  conventional  price," 
and  any  increase  in  the  established  price  is  sure  to  call 
forth  a  storm  of  public  protest.  Considerable  increases 
in  the  prices  of  meats  and  other  foods  are  accepted 
quite  readily,  for  these  prices  are  subject  to  constant 
fluctuation,  but  an  increase  in  the  price  of  milk  is  re- 
garded as  an  encroachment.  Proposed  raising  of  that 
price  often  results  in  starting  a  " scare"  with  calls  for 
prosecutor's  investigation, — an  interesting  example  of 
the  power  of  convention.  This  is  a  condition  naturally 
deprecated  by  the  distributer  of  milk,  through  whom  it 
reacts  on  the  farmer. 

Attention  may  here  be  called  to  the  ticket  system  of 
payments  as  a  means  of  adjustment.  Under  this  sys- 
tem the  dealer  sells  the  customer  for  cash  a  strip  or 
book  of  tickets  each  of  which  is  good  for  a  quart  or  a 
pint  of  milk.  Because  of  the  saving  to  the  dealer  in 
collections  and  the  ease  with  which  the  amount  charged 
for  tickets  can  be  adjusted  so  as  to  take  account  of 
fractions  of  a  cent  in  the  quart  price,  customers  who 
use  tickets  can  obtain  milk  at  a  lower  rate  than  those 
who  pay  on  credit  in  round  cents.  With  or  without 


THE  ECONOMIC  FACTORS  147 

this  system,  the  adjustment  of  retail  prices  in  fractions 
of  a  cent  for  regular  customers  seems  worthy  of  more 
attention  than  it  has  received  thus  far.  One  of  the 
large  companies  of  New  York  has  recently  been  con- 
sidering the  plan  of  a  weekly  retail  price  which  will 
allow  for  fluctuations  in  cost. 

2.  Non-recognition  of  Quality  Differences. — To  the 
public  "milk  is  milk/'  and  naturally,  for  the  consumer 
ordinarily  has  no  knowledge  of  its  source  or  actual 
sanitary  quality.  Its  whiteness  and  cream  line  are 
all  that  are  visible  to  the  housewife.  Hence,  while 
eggs,  for  example,  are  sold  under  four  or  five  different 
grades,  there  is,  so  far  as  official  designation  goes, 
(certified  milk  aside),  generally  only  one  kind  of  milk 
on  the  market.  Vital  distinctions  are  thus  ignored 
which  it  should  be  the  object  of  regulation  to  make 
clear. 

ECONOMIC  EFFECTS  OF  SANITARY 
REGULATION* 

Those  who  view  the  milk  problem  from  the  sanitary 
side  are  so  apt  to  slight  the  economic  bearings  of  sani- 
tary regulation  that  some  consideration  of  them  here 
will  not  be  out  of  place. 

In  the  absence  of  any  effective  regulation  market 
milk  is  bought  and  sold  irrespective  of  sanitary  quality. 
In  this  case  "milk  is  milk"  and  there  is  one  retail  price 
for  all  except  in  so  far  as  certain  milkmen  may  have 
built  up  a  public  reputation  of  their  own. 

Where  certain  minimum  sanitary  regulations  are  put 
into  effect,  the  situation,  assuming  that  the  cost  of 

*  Cf .  figures  on  cost  of  sanitary  items,  Appendix  D. 


148  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

this  minimum  sanitation  is  no  considerable  item,  will 
be  much  the  same.  Any  tendency  to  increased  price 
will  be  modified  by  the  fact  that  cleanliness,  refrigera- 
tion, and  pasteurization  do  not  operate  entirely  to 
raise  costs,  for  they  have  an  economic  value  of  their 
own  in  preserving  milk  and  making  it  more  salable  and 
would  be  practiced  to  some  degree  even  if  not  required 
by  public  authority.  Under  this  condition  of  enforced 
minimum  standards  some  of  the  producers  and  dis- 
tributers would  doubtless  naturally  practice  sanitation 
above  the  requirements,  but  those  dealers  who  rise 
above  the  average  in  this  respect  would  derive  no  extra 
recompense. 

If,  now,  the  sanitary  requirements  be  made  de- 
cidedly strict,  a  certain  number  of  dealers  will  find 
themselves  unable  to  meet  them,  and  will  go  out  of 
business.  If  the  cost  of  production  for  the  others  is 
materially  increased,  there  will  then  normally  be  a 
corresponding  increase  in  price,  and  an  increase  will  be 
further  favored  if  the  elimination  of  the  other  dealers 
has  reduced  the  total  supply.  The  increase  in  price 
may,  on  the  other  hand,  reduce  the  demand,  people 
preferring  to  use  less  milk  and  dealers  handling  no 
more  milk  than  they  can  profitably  sell  at  the  increased 
cost  of  production.  Under  these  conditions  the  milk 
industry  tends  to  become  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  a 
comparatively  few  men  who  can  give  it  the  demanded 
special  attention.  This  is  what  has  happened,  for 
example,  in  a  town  which  is  notable  for  its  strict  regula- 
tion, viz.,  Montclair,  N.  J.,  where  the  number  of  dealers 
has  been  much  reduced  and  milk  is  sold  at  a  higher 
price  than  in  neighboring  communities. 


THE  ECONOMIC  FACTORS  149 

Under  the  system  of  regulation  by  minimum,  which 
has  thus  far  been  considered,  it  is  clear  that  the  price 
of  milk  normally  takes  a  single  level  which  corresponds, 
roughly,  to  the  average  cost  of  production.  The  poorest 
qualities  of  milk  cannot  be  sold;  on  the  other  hand, 
qualities  better  than  the  average  (with  the  exception 
of  certified  milk,  where  sold)  bring  no  added  price  and 
there  is  no  economic  incentive  to  produce  them.* 

In  a  recent  discussion  of  the  milk  situation  in  Ver- 
mont the  Commissioner  of  Agriculture  of  that  State, 
Hon.  E.  S.  Brigham,13  mentioned  three  ways  in  which 
the  situation  might  be  improved  :— 

1.  The  limitation  of  the  requirements  of  health  boards  to 
those  things  which  are  necessary  to  safeguard  the  public 
health. 

2.  The  payment  for  milk  on  a  basis  which  will  make  a 
distinction  in  price  between  good  milk  and  poor  milk. 

3.  The  securing  for  the  producer  of  a  price  which  will  en- 
able him  to  make  a  reasonable  profit  in  his  business. 

Continuing  his  discussion  of  the  economic  question, 
the  Commissioner  made  the  plain  statement,  based  on 
some  analysis  of  figures,  "  I  have  yet  to  be  shown  where 
the  shipping  of  milk,  under  present  conditions,  is  of 
any  value  to  our  Vermont  dairyman. "  Referring  to  the 
fact  that  the  milk  contractor  will  pay  no  more  than 
he  has  to,  the  speaker  advocated  concerted  action  by 
the  farmers  in  order  to  command  higher  prices.  In 
regard  to  the  second  of  the  propositions  quoted,  the 
Commissioner  asserted  that,  in  accordance  with  the 

*  This  condition  may,  of  course,  be  modified  by  official  publicity 
regarding  qualities  of  milks.  Such  publicity  is  not,  however,  very 
effective  except  under  special  conditions.  Cf.  p.  115. 


150  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

economic  principle  stated  in  Gresham's  law  of  cur- 
rency, "if  poor  milk  as  a  commodity  of  commerce 
commands  the  same  price  as  good  milk  and  is  cheaper 
to  produce,  we  may  expect  the  milk  supply  to  tend  to 
approximate  the  poore  t  quality  which  health  officials 
will  allow  to  be  sold."  Affirming  that  such  premiums 
for  quality  as  have  been  established  by  some  contrac- 
tors are  "entirely  inadequate,"  he  continued: — 

Now  the  question  is  this,  Can  milk  which  is  dirty  and 
loaded  with  bacteria  be  cleaned  by  running  through  a  clari- 
fier,  have  its  bacteria  killed  by  pasteurization,  and  still  be  a 
good,  clean,  wholesome  product,  fit  for  human  consump- 
tion? If  so,  there  is  very  little  need  to  encourage  cleanliness 
in  production,  because  when  the  producer  of  clean  milk  sees 
his  product  emptied  into  the  same  vat  with  the  product  of 
the  filthy  producer,  as  is  now  the  case,  and  he  receives  no 
reward  for  his  pains  taken,  he  soon  grows  tired  of  attempting 
to  produce  a  clean  product,  and  the  quality  of  the  milk  supply 
sinks  to  a  low  level.  I  have  been  repeatedly  asked  by  ... 
contractors  to  devise  some  way  to  encourage  the  produc- 
tion of  clean  milk.  I  have  always  inquired  if  clean  milk  was 
worth  any  more  than  dirty  milk  so  that  they  would  care  to 
make  an  adequate  distinction  in  price,  but  I  have  not  yet 
had  a  satisfactory  answer. 

The  remedy  of  this  situation  is  obviously  not  the 
throwing  of  discredit  upon  clarification  and  pasteuriza- 
tion— processes  good  in  themselves — but  the  estab- 
lishment and  enforcement  by  health  authorities  of 
standards  which  will  act  back  to  the  original  product 
and  necessitate  a  monetary  distinction  between  good 
milk  and  better  milk  and  rule  out  the  worse.  For  if 
certain  official  grades  of  milk  are  established  (as  was 


THE  ECONOMIC  FACTORS  151 

described  in  the  last  chapter),  there  is  brought  about  a 
market  condition  in  accordance  with  facts,  each  grade 
publicly  recognized  commanding  a  price  corresponding 
to  its- quality  and  cost  of  production.  This  condition 
supersedes — or  should  supersede — any  unofficial  or 
ill-defined  characterizations,  such  as  are  sometimes 
given  to  milk  by  dealers.  Most  important  of  all,  from 
the  economic  standpoint,  superior  grades  of  milk  are 
then  no  longer  lumped  with  the  inferior,  but  bring  the 
higher  price  to  which  they  are  entitled.  Only  thus  can 
justice  be  done  to  both  producer  and  consumer. 


CHAPTER  V 
HOW  SOLVE  THE  PROBLEM? 

It  now  remains  only  to  sum  up  the  indications  of 
the  preceding  chapters,  together  with  some  considera- 
tions of  a  more  sweeping  character. 

THE  GREAT  NEED:  MANIFESTATION  OF  VALUES 

The  great  difficulty  in  the  milk  situation  to-day  is 
that  values,  both  sanitary  and  economic,  are  not 
clearly  recognized.  Milk  is  the  one  staple  food  which 
varies  in  sanitary  value,  in  food  value,  and  in  cost  of 
production  without  these  variations  being  generally 
recognized  in  retail  price.  This  is  the  "milk  is  milk" 
difficulty. 

Eggs  are  sold  according  to  freshness,  butter  accord- 
ing to  flavor,  flour  according  to  its  bread-making  quali- 
ties, meat  according  to  the  cut;  but  milk  is  sold,  by  an 
outgrown  custom,  as  plain  milk — a  white  fluid  in  a 
can  or  a  bottle.  If  it  can  be  sold  as  such,  the  dealer  is 
satisfied;  if  he  obtains  cream  for  his  coffee  and  an 
opalescent  liquid  for  his  children,  the  customer  is  con- 
tent. The  dairyman  of  slovenly  methods  may  compete 
with  the  cleanly,  careful  dairyman  so  long  as  he  man- 
ages to  meet  the  minimum  requirements  of  the  law. 
He  may  get  the  same  price,  and  his  methods  play  the 
predominant  part  in  fixing  the  market  price  of  the 
product  known  without  discrimination  as  "milk." 

152 


HOW  SOLVE  THE  PROBLEM?  153 

For  such  reasons  authorities  are  agreed  that  milk 
should  be  graded  according  to  definite  standards  and 
should  be  labelled  and  sold  on  that  basis.  It  only  re- 
mains to  put  the  principle  into  operation. 

Principles  of  Grading  * 

The  following  considerations  should  govern  grading: 

1.  It  should  take  account  of  sanitary  quality,  i.  e., 
of  safety  and  decency. 

2.  It  should  take  account  of  composition,  i.  e.,  roughly 
speaking,  of  nutritional  quality. 

3.  It  should  be  simple  and  practicable.    The  grades 
should  be  few  and  the  requirements  as  simple  as  pos- 
sible. 

4.  It  should  take  account  of  uses,  with  special  refer- 
ence to  infant  feeding.! 

5.  It  should  be  evident  to  the  consumer,   which 
means  clear  and  simple  labelling. 

The  requirement  of  safety  will  make  pasteurization 
essential  for  all  grades  except,  possibly,  raw  milk  of 
the  highest  class.  The  impossibility  of  immediately 
securing  general  pasteurization  hi  many  communities, 
especially  small  ones,  may,  however,  necessitate  con- 
cessions. This  is  the  case  with  the  classification  pre- 
scribed by  the  Sanitary  Code  of  New  York  State  (Ap- 
pendix B). 

In  addition  to  the  criterion  of  pasteurization,  the 
most  feasible  basis  of  classification  as  to  sanitary  quality 

*  For  grading  systems  see  Appendix  B. 

t  A  rational  classification  is:  (1)  For  infants  and  children  (Grade  A, 
raw  and  pasteurized) ;  (2)  For  adults  (Grade  B,  pasteurized) ;  (3)  For 
cooking  and  manufacturing  purposes  only  (Grade  C,  pasteurized  or 
boiled — to  be  authorized  only  where  necessary). 


154  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

appears  to  be  the  total  count  of  bacteria.  Other  labora- 
tory tests  may  also  be  found  to  be  applicable,  with 
special  reference  to  dirt  determination.  Objections 
to  dairy  score  requirements  for  the  different  grades 
have  been  discussed  in  Chapter  III.  The  logical  way 
to  rate  milk  is  by  the  quality  of  the  product  itself,  not  by 
the  equipment  of  the  dairy  or  the  methods  which  the 
dairyman  is  believed  to  use.  In  short,  the  proof  of  the 
milk  is  the  testing. 

The  most  practical  criterion  of  composition  is  the 
butter-fat  percentage,  which  varies  more  than  the 
solids  not  fat,  is  easy  of  determination,  and  is  a  point 
of  particular  importance  in  artificial  infant  feeding. 

A  natural  application  of  the  above  considerations 
would  be  to  grade  milk  according  to  sanitary  quality 
as  "  Grade  A,"  "  Grade  B,"  etc.,  with  the  use  of  the 
word  "raw"  or  "pasteurized";  then  to  add  a  figure 
indicating  for  each  supply  the  butter-fat  percentage. 
This  latter  might  be  stated  by  limits  of  variation,  e.  g., 
"  3.5  to  4.0%  fat,"  or  by  a  single  figure,  as  "  3.5%  fat," 
with  a  legal  limit  as  to  the  permissible  variation  of  the 
actual  content  from  such  figure.  Butter-fat  labelling 
has  not  yet,  so  far  as  the  writer  knows,  been  attempted, 
but  has  been  proposed  *  and,  if  proved  to  be  prac- 
ticable, would  be  the  logical  way  of  selling  milk  accord- 
ing to  richness.  It  would  ensure  the  purchaser  the 
desired  amount  of  cream  and,  if  sufficiently  accurate, 
would  be  a  guide  for  removing  cream  from  milk  in  pre- 
paring it  for  infant  feeding.  At  the  same  time,  the 
health  authorities  would  have  to  perform  sufficient 

*  See  recommendation  by  the  Commission  on  Milk  Standards, 
p.  92,  which  further  advises  a  guaranty  of  milk  solids  not  fat. 


HOW  SOLVE  THE  PROBLEM?      155 

testing  and  dealers  would  have  to  exercise  care  in  mix- 
ing milks  so  that  the  fat  percentages  would  correspond 
with  the  markings;  otherwise  these  would  only  be  mis- 
leading. 

Under  the  grading  system  the  producer  is  paid  for 
the  kind  of  milk  that  he  produces,  the  dealer  is  paid 
for  the  kind  or  kinds  that  he  sells,  and  the  consumer 
pays  for  what  he  chooses  to  buy;  and  this  result  comes 
about  largely  automatically.  Natural  differences  will 
be  evident  instead  of  being  confused.  The  great  mass 
of  consumers  will  doubtless  continue  to  buy  the  cheap- 
est milk  that  they  can,  but  an  increasing  public  recog- 
nition of  the  better  grades  should  develop  when  these 
are  clearly  labelled  and  their  use  advocated  by  health 
authorities.  The  system  is  therefore  not  merely  puni- 
tive as  regards  bad  milk  but  is  a  means  of  developing 
the  production  of  good  milks. 

The  Public  Value  of  Milks 

It  is  obvious  that  the  availability  of  a  given  milk  to 
the  consumer  depends  not  only  upon  its  sanitary  and 
food  quality  but  also  upon  the  price  which  he  has  to 
pay.  Dr.  Charles  E.  North  has  sought  to  combine 
the  various  items  involved,  by  means  of  an  ingenious 
method  of  rating  the  public  value  of  different  milks. 
Dr.  North  states  that  "the  public  value  of  milk,  as- 
suming that  the  average  chemical  composition  of  the 
different  grades  and  classes  on  the  market  is  about  the 
same,  depends  chiefly  on  three  fundamental  charac- 
teristics. These  are  safety,  cleanliness,  and  price." 
His  method  of  rating,  on  a  scale  of  100,  is  set  forth  in 
the  following  table: — 


156 


THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 


POINTS 
FOR  SAFETY 

POINTS 
FOR  DECENCY 

POINTS 
FOR  PRICE* 

PERFECT                                                          50 

PERFECT                     25 

PERFECT          25 

Pasteurized  in  bottles  50 
Pasteurized  in  bulk,  and  bottled  45 
Medical      ] 
Veterinary  *t  Inspection                 30 

BACTERIA 
IN  RAW  PRODUCT 
10,000.  .25 

100,000..  20 
200,000.  .19 
500  000     10 

9c  or  less.  .25 
lOc  20 
lie  15 
12c                10 

Sanitary 

1,000,000.  .   5 

15c  5 

Scoring  farms                                25 

No  Insoection.  .                           .   0 

Over  1.000.000.  .   0 

20c  .  .            .0 

(Clarification  would  add  5  points  to  decency  of  all  milk  and  in  the 
case  of  raw  milk  would  also  add  5  points  to  safety.) 

This  scale,  applied,  for  example,  to  the  milks  sold 
in  New  York  City,  gives  values  ranging  from  89  down 
to  70  for  the  three  market  grades  A,  B,  and  C.  Certi- 
fied milk  is  valued  at  60,  being  rated  down  on  safety 
and  price,  while  ordinary  raw  milk,  excluded  from  sale 
by  the  above  grading,  is  given  no  credit  except  for 
price,  having  the  low  value  of  25.  Dr.  North  states 
that  "the  milk  of  the  future  will  be  reasonably  clean 
and  scientifically  pasteurized,  and  will  be  sold  at  a 
moderate  price.  Such  milk  as  Grade  A  pasteurized  at 
9  or  10  cents  per  quart  is  the  milk  toward  which  the 
industry  and  the  majority  of  sanitary  authorities  are 
now  working."  This  method  of  rating  and  its  implica- 
tions are  discussed  by  Dr.  North  in  publications  on  the 
subject.1  It  is  obviously  not  to  be  taken  too  literally, 
but  simply  as  making  general  comparisons  between 

*  Price  scale  adjusted  to  prevailing  market  prices  for  bottled  milks, 
minimum  here  being  taken  as  9  cents. 


HOW  SOLVE  THE  PROBLEM? 


157 


established  grades  of  milk  more  definite  than  would 
otherwise  be  possible. 

COSTS  AND  PRICES  * 

Here  may  be  summed  up  the  main  considerations 
relating  to  costs  and  prices.  These  may  be  conven- 
iently shown  as  follows: — 

FACTORS 


TENDING  TO  RAISE  COSTS 


TENDING  TO  LOWER  COSTS 


Increasing   farm   costs   of   feeds, 
labor,  and  other  necessaries 

Agricultural  inefficiency 

Increasing  distances  and  rates  of 
transportation 


Improvement  of  dairying 

methods 
Greater  efficiency  of  milk  plant 

machinery   and    methods    and 

of  distribution  (all  favored  by 

concentration) 


Increasing  city  expenses  of  dealer , 
Sanitation  Simplification  of  sanitary  require- 

ments 


TENDING   TO    ADJUSTMENT   OF   COSTS   AND    PRICES 

Recognition  of  grades 
Organization  of  fanners 

The  above  is  simply  a  view  of  salient  features  with 
the  omission  of  considerations  as  to  supply  and  de- 
mand, adjustment  of  railroad  rates,  and  other  compli- 
cating factors. 

Regarding  the  general  level  of  milk  prices,  the  im- 
pression got  from  considerations  set  forth  in  the  last 
chapter  is  that,  at  time  of  present  writing,  costs  are 


*  Cf .  Appendix  D,  Costs  and  Prices. 


158  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

increasing  distinctly  more  rapidly  than  the  price  to  the 
consumer.  Hence,  while  better  methods  in  milk  sanita- 
tion will  tend  to  keep  down  costs,  the  consumer  must 
expect,  so  long  as  these  are  actually  increasing,  to  pay 
for  the  increase.  If,  as  appears,  a  great  deal  of  milk 
is  now  produced  at  little  or  no  profit  or  even  at  a  loss, 
and  this  is  becoming  increasingly  recognized,  then 
rising  prices  must  naturally  be  looked  for.  Again, 
wherever  materially  stricter  sanitary  requirements 
are  made,  it  is  to  be  expected  that  a  corresponding 
compensation  in  increased  price  will  be  demanded. 

It  is  unreasonable  to  expect  that,  when  the  costs  of 
staples  and  labor  are  rising,  the  price  of  milk  should 
remain  stationary,  for  the  farmer  and  dealer  are  sub- 
ject to  the  same  economic  conditions  as  the  popula- 
tion in  general.  Regarding  any  increase  in  the  retail 
price,  it  is  fair  to  suppose  that  it  should  be  shared  by 
farmer  and  dealer.  Up  to  the  present  the  farmer  appears 
to  have  had  the  small  end  of  the  division  of  profits.  At 
the  same  time  a  legitimate  increase  in  price  paid  to  the 
producer  should  not  serve  as  an  excuse  to  dealers  acting 
in  concert  or  combination  to  raise  unduly  the  price  to 
the  consumer.  Unfortunately  the  present  system  re- 
quires retail  prices  to  be  stepped  up  or  down  by  whole 
cents,  while  the  dealer  can  adjust  his  price  to  the  pro- 
ducer in  small  fractions. 

As  to  the  cost  of  sanitation  considered  separately, 
sanitary  milk  need  not  cost  much  more  than  unsani- 
tary milk.  Some  idea  of  the  items  in  this  regard  is 
given  by  the  North  system  (page  78)  and  by  some  of 
the  figures  in  Appendix  D. 

The  advantages  of  the  ticket  system  and  of  the  ad- 


HOW  SOLVE  THE  PROBLEM?  159 

justment  of  retail  prices  by  fractions  of  a  cent  have 
already  been  discussed  in  Chapter  IV  (pages  146-47). 

Whatever  price  readjustments  take  place  with  the 
adoption  of  the  grading  system  will  normally  be  the 
just  results  of  recognition  of  quality.  In  New  York 
City  Grade  A  milk  sells  at  one  cent  a  quart  more  than 
Grade  B,  while  Grade  C  (an  unbottled  milk  for  cooking 
or  manufacturing  purposes)  is  two  cents  below  B.  It 
is  clear  that  since  proper  grading  in  the  average  com- 
munity, would  raise  standards,  corresponding  in- 
creases in  prices  might  be  expected,  but  these  would 
fall  chiefly  or  wholly  on  the  better  grades,  and  should 
be  by  no  means  excessive. 

Finally,  the  system  of  grades,  by  clearing  up  con- 
fusion, permits  freer  play  to  the  economic  force  of  com- 
petition and  to  the  economic  law  of  supply  and  de- 
mand. There  has  been  much  talk  about  securing  the 
cooperation  of  the  dairyman  and  persuading  him  to  go 
to  trouble  and  expense  for  improvements  which  are 
not  recognized  in  an  increased  price  for  his  product 
over  that  of  other  diarymen  less  amenable  to  persua- 
sion. Cooperation  is  an  excellent  thing,  and  it  is  well 
to  encourage  individual  effort.  But  competition  is, 
after  all,  the  dominant  force.  It  is  not  necessarily  true 
that,  as  has  been  asserted,  "  commercial  competition 
hurts  the  quantity  and  the  quality  of  the  milk  supply. " 
Quality  is  impaired  only  when  sanitary  regulation  is 
so  inadequate  as  to  permit  it  to  be.  Establish  and 
enforce  definite  milk  standards  for  different  grades, 
and  competition  should  operate  to  produce  each  grade 
most  efficiently  and  cheaply,  while  economic  law  should 
ensure  that  the  supply  of  each  approximate  the  de- 


160  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

mand, — although,  to  be  sure,  these  effects  are  subject 
to  modification  by  conditions  of  present-day  milk  in- 
dustry which  we  have  considered  elsewhere. 

THE  ROLE  OF  THE  LABORATORY 

In  gauging  the  quality  of  milk  the  scientific  method 
is  to  rely  upon  the  indication  of  the  laboratory  as  op- 
posed to  the  less  accurate  indications  of  inspection. 
Reasons  for  this  have  already  been  set  forth  in  Chapter 
III,  in  the  discussion  of  the  score-card  method  of 
dairy  inspection.  By  means  of  inspection  such  matters 
as  health  of  cows  and  methods  of  operating  milk  plants 
may  be  looked  after,  but,  as  regards  operations  in  the 
dairy,  it  is  seldom  possible  to  observe  them.  Inspec- 
tion is  therefore  chiefly  a  means  of  giving  advice  or 
instruction  to  the  dairyman.  But,  by  means  of  the 
laboratory,  samples  of  a  milk  may  be  taken  at  any 
stage  of  its  history  and  subjected  to  specific  tests. 
These  tests  can  disclose  not  only  its  general  bacteri- 
ological and  chemical  character  but  also,  perhaps,  the 
quantity  of  dirt  which  has  contaminated  it,  and  can 
even  detect  abnormal  udder  conditions  in  the  milch 
cow  when  physical  examination  of  the  animal  would 
not  do  so. 

Laboratory  methods  are  steadily  being  developed  in 
scope  and  exactitude.  They  must  rightly  be  regarded 
not  as  a  mere  adjunct  of  inspection  but  as  a  first  means 
of  indicating  where  inspection — or  rather  instruc- 
tion— is  needed. 

A  recent  paper  by  Dr.  Charles  E.  North,  arguing 
cogently  for  proper  correlation  of  laboratory  and  in- 
spection work,  and  putting  the  laboratory  test  before 


HOW  SOLVE  THE  PROBLEM?  161 

the  inspection,  along  the  line  from  city  to  country, 
concludes  as  follows  (italics  inserted) : — 

In  forming  plans  for  the  expenditure  of  the  annual  ap- 
propriation for  milk  control  the  milk  dealer  as  well  as  the 
health  officer  should  bear  in  mind  that  one  laboratory  worker 
can  test  the  milk  of  fifty  dairy  farms  for  bacteria  while  one 
dairy  inspector  is  inspecting  five  dairy  farms,  and  that  there- 
fore one  dollar  spent  in  laboratory  testing  covers  as  much 
territory  as  ten  dollars  spent  in  dairy  inspection.  The  labora- 
tory test  should  come  first  and  make  the  diagnosis;  the  dairy 
inspector  should  come  second  and  apply  the  remedy.  These 
principles  result  in  the  greatest  economy  and  efficiency, 
whether  control  is  being  exercised  by  the  milk  dealer  or  by 
the  health  officer.2 

THE  ROLE  OF  INSPECTION 

Inspection  seems  to  have  been  originally  regarded 
as  a  species  of  policing,  often  with  the  elements  of  de- 
tective work.  The  object  was  to  " catch"  the  bad 
milkman.  This  idea  has  now  been  largely  superseded 
by  that  of  advice,  of  "  education  of  the  dairyman." 

Dairy  Demonstration 

The  conclusion  toward  which  modern  milk  control 
is  tending  is  this:  if  the  product,  the  milk  itself,  is  to 
be  judged,  rather  than  the  dairy,  and  the  dairyman 
understands  that  its  resultant  bacterial  character  is 
the  all-important  thing,  then  he  will  welcome  advice 
which  will  help  him  to  produce  better  milk.  If  he  be 
held  responsible  and  be  paid  for  good  results,  he  will 
practice  the  methods  for  getting  them.*  And  if  those 

*  Under  the  North  system  (p.  78)  it  was  stipulated  that  the  dairyman 


162  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

methods  be  simplified  to  the  greatest  possible  degree, 
so  that  he  is  not  confused  and  discouraged  by  minutiae, 
then  his  cooperation  will  be  completely  secured. 

All  of  this  has  been  shown  to  be  perfectly  possible 
by  North's  methods  (described  in  Chapter  III,  where 
also  the  use  of  a  new  type  of  score  card  was  discussed). 
Mere  inspection  as  a  mode  of  regulation  has  certain 
serious  inherent  difficulties.  The  usual  impossibility 
of  being  present  at  milking  time  and  other  times  when 
operations  connected  with  milk  are  going  on  has  made 
inspection  often  a  mere  survey  of  premises  and  equip- 
ment. Questioning  and  injunctions  do  not  ensure  that 
the  dairyman  use  specified  utensils  and  methods.  A 
small-topped  milking  pail  on  the  wall  may  mean 
nothing.  But  if  the  dairyman  is  directly  responsible 
for  the  bacterial  content  of  his  milk,  he  will  not  wisely 
shirk  methods  as  he  is  tempted  to  do  when  the  emphasis 
is  placed  on  inspection. 

Under  these  circumstances  inspection,  far  from 
being  the  bane  of  the  farmer,  would  be  indispensable 
to  him.  Its  frequency  would  be  governed  by  the  re- 
sults of  laboratory  tests.  It  would  be  largely  instruc- 
tional; the  inspector  would  be  an  adviser  or  demon- 
strator of  methods.  The  idea  of  inspection  proper 
would  of  course  apply  to  such  special  examinations  as 
may  be  required,  taking  of  samples,  surveillance  of  milk 
plants  and  of  the  sale  of  milk,  and  similar  functions. 
And  when  methods  are  to  be  criticised,  advice  or  warn- 
ing on  the  basis  of  unfavorable  bacteriological  tests 
will  carry  far  more  weight  than  any  made  "in  the  air." 

should  share  his  sanitary  premium  with  his  milkers,  thus  carrying  the 
principle  of  payment  for  results  to  its  logical  extent  in  this  direction. 


HOW  SOLVE  THE  PROBLEM?  163 

A  sane  milk  supply  [says  a  recent  writer]  must  be  cheap 
enough  to  be  within  reach  of  the  common  people;  for  this 
purpose  certified  milk  is  a  failure;  on  the  contrary,  if  dairy 
demonstration  supersedes  dairy  inspection,  and  laboratory 
tests  the  score  card  in  grading  milk,  when  care  is  made  su- 
perior to  equipment  .  .  .  then  a  clean  milk  may  be  had  at 
a  reasonable  price  as  well.3 

ORGANIZATION  AND  ADMINISTRATION  * 

The  ideal  plan  for  the  administration  of  milk  laws 
would  combine  local  and  state  supervision.  Sanitary 
authority  being  primarily  local  in  nature,  local  munici- 
palities should  have  ample  power  to  control  their  milk 
supplies;  but  there  are  certain  things  outside  of  their 
territorial  limits  that  can  be  done  more  efficiently  by 
the  state.  Local  control  has  developed  in  advance  of 
that  of  the  state,  but  the  tendency  is  now  toward  giv- 
ing greater  powers  of  supervision  (not  abridging,  but 
supplementing,  those  of  local  municipalities)  to  state 
authorities.  Local  authorities  could,  under  proper 
organization,  enforce  their  ordinances  through  the 
cooperation  of  the  latter,  who  would  thus  exercise 
supervision  but  not  actual  control.  Modern  laboratory 
methods  fortunately  enable  each  municipality  (pro- 
vided laboratory  facilities  are  adequate)  accurately  to 
gauge  the  quality  of  milk  as  it  is  received  within  its 
limits.  "Country  work"  by  state  authorities  is  an 
advantage  for  the  reasons  that  they  may  economically 
district  their  territory,  that  reduplicationsand  long 
trips  by  local  officialsmay^J)^  supplies 

rejected  by  one  municipality  may  be  prevented  from 

*  Cf .  following  section,  on  Legislation. 


164  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

going  to  another  without  detection,  and  that  uniformity 
of  methods  may  be  secured  and  friction  eliminated. 
Supplies  originating  in  one  State  and  sent  to  neighbor- 
ing States  for  sale  may  be  supervised  by  officials  of  the 
latter  on  condition  of  not  being  allowed  entry  to  the 
State  without  approval  of  their  quality  and  treatment 
and  access  of  such  officials  to  the  sources  and  the  line 
of  transportation.  Theoretically,  the  state  might  best 
perform  all  the  necessary  supervision  outside  of  the 
limits  of  each  municipality.*  But  many  municipalities 
do  all  or  a  great  deal  of  such  work,  for  state  control  is 
undeveloped  and  immediate  expediency  has  dictated 
such  activity. 

The  state  authorities  referred  to  are  those  dealing 
with  health  and  with  agriculture  and  animal  industry. 

One  problem  [says  Dean  Russell  of  the  Wisconsin  College 
of  Agriculture]  which  so  far  lias  not  received  the  attention 
which  it  should  is  the  correlation  of  the  work  which  should 
be  performed  by  the  state.  At  present  three  generally  unre- 
lated state  organizations  may  be  concerned  with  the  milk 
problem : 

(1)  State  boards  of  health,  which  are  directly  interested 
in  public  health  problems. 

(2)  State  live-stock  sanitary  boards,  or  live-stock  commis- 
sions, which  are  concerned  with  the  control  of  animal  dis- 
eases. 

(3)  State  dairy  and  food  commissions,  which  control  the 
purity  and  wholesomeness  of  food  supplies. 

Too  frequently  there  is  no  correlation  in  the  work  of  these 
respective  bodies.  The  milk  problem  touches  all  three  of 

*  This  principle  was  endorsed  by  the  New  York  Milk  Committee 
in  1913,  in  a  plan  advocating  uniform  state  legislation  fixing  milk 
standards. 


HOW  SOLVE  THE  PROBLEM?  .165 

them,  with  none  of  them  is  it  a  dominant  phase  of  their 
activity.  The  consequence  is  that  the  problem  in  its  en- 
tirety does  not  receive  the  adequate  attention  of  any  of  them. 
In  this  respect  improved  conditions  would  undoubtedly 
obtain,  if  a  more  thorough  correlation  of  these  various  or- 
ganizations could  be  brought  about. 

The  milk  problem,  as  such,  is  properly  a  hygienic  matter. 
Under  these  conditions,  there  is  no  question  but  that  the 
public  health  organization  is  in  a  better  position  to  exercise 
more  effective  control  than  either  of  the  other  two.4 

The  work  of  Federal  authorities  in  this  field  is  chiefly 
advisory,  consisting  in  investigation,  advice  to  States 
and  communities,  and  publication  of  information  of 
more  or  less  general  application. 

The  situation  as  to  state  control  is  commented  upon 
by  Dr.  Charles  V.  Chapin,  in  a  recent  survey  of  the 
work  of  state  health  departments,  as  follows:— 

The  subject  of  milk  control  is  one  of  the  most  complicated 
and  difficult  in  the  whole  field  of  public  health.  There  are 
some  who  feel  that  it  is  a  local  problem  and  should  be  left 
to  the  municipalities  to  work  out  for  themselves.  The  ma- 
jority believe  theoretically  in  uniform  state  laws  and  state 
control,  but  these  are  difficult  of  attainment.  In  agricul- 
tural states,  with  small  cities,  the  difficulties  are  not  so  great, 
and  they  are  most  acute  in  the  northeastern  states,  where 
there  are  many  large  cities  and  less  good  agricultural  land. 
Theoretically,  the  State  Board  of  Health  should  be  entrusted 
with  the  enforcement  of  milk  laws,  as  well  as  consulted  in 
their  framing.  Actually,  state  legislatures  have  not  given 
the  State  Board  of  Health  much  authority,  owing  to  fear 
on  the  part  of  the  farmers.  In  some  states  it  is  claimed  that 
authority  over  milk  has  been  given  to  the  department  of 
agriculture,  to  keep  it  away  from  the  health  department,  or 


166  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

a  special  dairy  department  has  been  created  for  a  similar 
purpose.5 

The  development  of  extension  work  by  state  agricul- 
tural authorities  is  of  the  greatest  importance.  It  is  not 
sufficient  to  publish  scientific  bulletins;  the  most  ef- 
fective service  requires  that  agricultural  experts — ad- 
visers or  demonstrators — go  regularly  to  the  farmer  and 
assist  him  with  his  problems.  In  preceding  paragraphs 
we  have  seen  how  important  is  this  practical  advice  as 
distinguished  from  mere  inspection  and  how  it  is  a  nec- 
essary complement  of  milk  regulation 

LOCAL  SUPERVISION 

Granted  that  efficient  public  health  service  and  a 
system  of  grading  have  been  established,  the  most  im- 
portant single  means  of  local  supervision  is  the  labora- 
tory. The  apparatus  for  performing  even  as  many  as 
100  to  200  bacteria  tests  daily  can  be  installed  at  a 
small  expenditure  ($200  to  $500)  .6  (The  apparatus  for 
ordinary  chemical  tests  is  also,  inexpensive.)  Under  ex- 
pert supervision,  tests  may  be  made  by  a  careful  worker 
(young  man  or  woman)  at  a  very  moderate  salary. 

The  effort  should  be  made  to  examine  each  supply 
for  total  count  at  least  once  a  week,  especially  during 
the  warmer  months,  and  to  make  any  special  examina- 
tions that  may  be  necessary.*  Chemical  tests  may 
be  made  less  frequently,  unless  milks  are  labelled  for 
fat  content.  Other  laboratory  tests,  e.  g.,  for  dirt,  may 
also  be  practiced. 

The  amount  of  attention  devoted  to  "milk  supply  by 

*  Cf .  resolution  of  Commission  on  Milk  Standards  relative  to  tests 
for  grading,  Appendix  B. 


HOW  SOLVE  THE  PROBLEM?  167 

local  health  authorities  varies  greatly.  Information 
collected  by  the  Department  of  Agriculture  in  1912-13 
from  162  cities  of  the  United  States  showed  that  the 
amount  of  money  spent  for  dairy  inspection  ranged  all 
the  way  from  nothing  to  19  cents  per  capita  per  annum, 
with  an  average  of  3.6  cents.  But,  beyond  the  mere 
fact  that  the  amounts  were  spent,  we  know  nothing  as 
to  the  methods,  efficiency,  or  results  accomplished. 

Cooperative  Local  Supervision. — In  connection  with 
local  work  mention  must  be  made  of  the  fact  that  com- 
munities which  are  too  small  to  be  able  to  afford  ade- 
quate milk  control,  and  especially  the  laboratory  at 
which  it  should  center,  may  cooperate  in  maintaining  a 
common  laboratory  and  joint  service.  Such  coopera- 
tion is  in  effect  at  Wellesley,  Mass.,  with  a  number  of 
neighboring  towns,  at  La  Salle,  Oglesby,  and  Peru,  111., 
where  a  common  Hygienic  Institute,  or  health  depart- 
ment, has  been  established;  and  among  the  munici- 
palities centering  about  Orange,  N.  J.  In  the  first  two 
cases  the  cooperation  is  for  public  health  service  in 
general,  while  in  the  last  case  it  is  simply  for  super- 
vision of  milk  supplies.  It  is  obvious  that  such  plans 
not  only  simplify  and  economize  the  control  of  over- 
lapping milk  supplies,  but  also  make  it  possible  for 
even  the  smallest  of  the  towns  concerned  to  obtain 
expert  service  and  adequate  laboratory  facilities  at  a 
moderate  cost. 

LEGISLATION 

What  has  been  said  in  the  preceding  section  fore- 
shadows the  remarks  appropriate  to  this  head.  While 
the  sanitary  function  of  milk  regulation  is  "primarily  a 


168  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

local  matter,  there  is  now  a  tendency  to  make  state 
legislation  more  specific  and  to  give  the  state  board  of 
health  or  some  other  body  power  to  promulgate  regula- 
tions applying  to  the  state  as  a  whole,  excepting,  per- 
haps, the  largest  cities.  Such  legislation  and  regulations 
may  ensure  uniformity  of  fundamental  requirements, 
and  are  a  special  manifestation  of  the  general  tendency 
to  establish  state  sanitary  standards.  A  notable  step 
in  this  direction  has  been  taken  in  New  York  State, 
where  a  sanitary  code  prescribed  by  the  Public  Health 
Council  applies  throughout  the  State  with  the  excep- 
tion of  New  York  City.  (For  the  system  of  milk  grad- 
ing established  by  this  code,  see  Appendix  B.)  A 
similar  power  has  also  been  conferred  upon  the  State 
Board  of  Health  of  New  Jersey. 

Legislatures  may  embody  more  or  less  specific  regula- 
tion in  statute,  leaving  subordinate  regulations  to  some 
special  body,  or  they  may  confer  large  general  powers 
in  the  matter  to  such  a  body.  The  normal  agency  for 
the  formulation  of  state  regulations  primarily  affecting 
public  health  is  the  state  board  of  health,  but,  on  ac- 
count of  the  several  interests  involved,  there  has  been 
some  controversy  as  to  what  body  should  be  empowered 
to  prescribe  milk  regulations.  Composite  boards  or 
commissions  have,  therefore,  been  proposed  in  which 
health  and  agricultural  authorities  should  play  the 
chief  part,  along  with  representatives  of  local  boards 
of  health,  farmers'  and  dealers'  organizations,  etc. 
It  seems  clear,  however,  that  the  sanitary  authorities 
should  alone  be  vested  with  power  to  establish  regula- 
tions primarily  affecting  health.  A  mixed  board,  es- 
pecially if  at  all  large,  is  likely  to  be  a  disharmonious 


HOW  SOLVE  THE  PROBLEM?  169 

and  therefore  a  weak  board.  The  practical  effect  of 
such  a  board  is  likely  to  be  to  obstruct  if  not  to  nullify 
the  efforts  of  the  health  authorities.  Compromises 
are  the  result  of  undue  jealousy  on  the  part  of  agricul- 
tural and  milk  industry  interests,  which  cannot  in 
justice  oppose  legitimate  sanitary  control  under  proper 
legislation. 

LOCAL  DIFFERENCES 

Local  or  regional  differences  in  the  intensity  of  the 
milk  problem  are  determined  by  the  following  general 
factors:— 

1.  Degree  of  urbanization  and. of  development  of 
milk  traffic. 

2.  Value  of  agricultural  lands. 

3.  Development   of  efficiency  of  the  dairying  in- 
dustry. 

4.  Costs  of  feeds  and  other  farm  material,  of  farm 
labor,  transportation,  handling,  and  distribution. 

5.  Sufficiency  or  insufficiency  of  local  milk  supply. 

6.  Sanitary  control  or  its  absence. 

7.  Adjustment  or  maladjustment  of  milk  prices. 
These  factors  naturally  vary  greatly  according  to 

place,  and  certain  of  them  fluctuate  from  month  to 
month.  A  complete  survey  of  the  milk  situation  of  a 
region  or  city  is  a  matter  of  much  complexity.  Men- 
tion of  some  such  surveys  is  made  in  Appendix  E. 

To  establish  sanitary  control  in  any  given  town  or 
city,  extensive  preliminary  investigation  is  usually 
unnecessary.  Chief  attention  is  to  be  paid  to  the  ques- 
tion of  how  much  laboratory  and  inspection  work  is 
necessary  for  the  given  number  of  supplies,  dairy  farms, 


170  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

milk  plants,  etc.,  and  its  cost.  Facts  well  recognized 
regarding  the  milk  problem  in  general  should  be  as- 
sumed. It  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  some  local  data 
have  primarily  an  administrative  value,  while  others 
are  assembled  chiefly  in  order  to  convince  governing 
and  appropriating  bodies  of  the  necessity  of  control. 
In  proposing  regulation  the  recommendations  of  the 
National  Commission  on  Milk  Standards  should  be 
consulted.  In  establishing  the  grading  system  it  is  of 
course  necessary  to  specify  a  thorough  working  mech- 
anism as  a  prerequisite  to  the  proper  enforcement  of 
the  system. 

CENTRALIZATION,    COOPERATIVE   PLANS, 
MUNICIPALIZATION 

The  difficulties,  sanitary  and  economic,  of  the  milk 
problem  under  present  trade  conditions  are  such  that 
various  plans  for  centralization  and  cooperation  have 
been  proposed.  These  may  be  classified  as  fol- 
lows:— 

1.  Farmers'  cooperative  milk  depots  in  country  dis- 
tricts.— Such  a  plan  has  been  described  by  the  Boston 
Chamber  of  Commerce  committee  as  quoted  on  pages 
142-44  of  the  present  volume.    Under  this  head  may 
also  be  included  plans  for  the  organization  of  such 
depots  under  the  auspices  of  city  organizations,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  Homer  plan  (Appendix  C). 

2.  Farmers1  cooperative  city  marketing,  involving  sale 
of  milk  by  bidding  or  auction  to  city  dealers,  with  the 
object  of  breaking  up  price-dictation  by  middlemen. 
This  has  recently  been  proposed  by  New  England 
producers  shipping  milk  to  Boston. 


HOW  SOLVE  THE  PROBLEM?  171 

3.  Cooperative  pasteurization  plants,   under  private 
or  public  control. 

4.  Central   city   delivery,    under   private    or   public 
control  (see  pp.  139-40). 

5.  Complete  municipalization, — i.  e.,  handling  under 
the  control  of  the  municipality  from  the  farm  to  the 
consumer.    This  plan  has  recently  been  proposed  for 
all  municipalities  in  the  State  of  Rhode  Island  by  a 
legislative  commission  of  inquiry  (Appendix  E). 

Concentration  is  clearly  a  great  factor  in  efficiency, 
as  is  shown  by  the  large  milk  companies  of  the  cities. 
Individual  retailers,  as  well  as  the  farmers,  have  been 
slow  to  see  the  great  advantage  of  concentration;  hence 
they  labor  under  difficulties.  Farmers'  cooperative 
milk  depots  in  country  districts  have  been  advocated 
as  practical  (see  pp.  142-44) .  Cooperative  pasteuriza- 
tion and  central  distribution  to  obviate  the  wasteful 
overlapping  of  delivery  routes  have  been  tried  hi 
one  instance  known  to  the  writer,  with  apparent 
success  (see  p.  250).  Certain  practical  difficulties  are  to 
be  met  hi  connection  with  these  last  ideas, — difficul- 
ties which  could  be  obviated  only  by  amalgamation 
or  assumption  of  the  interests  of  the  dealers  involved 
(see  p.  140).  The  association  of  individual  dealers  to 
form  businesses  of  efficient  size  would  eliminate  the 
disadvantages  and  wastes  existing  when  bottling, 
pasteurization  and  distribution  are  so  dispersed  that 
overlapping  of  function  and  high  operating  expenses 
are  inevitable.  There  is  more  hope  in, the  general 
recognition  of  this  economic  fact  by  dealers  and  hi 
their  voluntary  or  economically  forced  amalgamation 
of  interests  than  in  cooperative  plans  which  have  to 


172  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

contend  with  the  individualistic  attitude  of  retailers 
in  competition. 

Those  who  advocate  the  extreme  of  municipaliza- 
tion — for  instance,  Nathan  Straus 7 — draw  a  parallel 
between  water  supplies  and  milk  supplies,  and  argue 
that,  as  municipalities  have  had  to  own  the  former,  so 
they  will  have  to  come  to  owning  the  latter.  The  basis 
of  the  parallel  is  that  milk,  like  water,  is  distributed 
in  larger  quantities  and  bears  an  important  relation 
to  public  health,  and  that  milk  supply  cannot  be  satis- 
factorily controlled  by  public  authority  acting  in  a 
simply  supervisory  capacity.  The  mere  condemnation 
of  the  idea  as  " socialistic"  is,  of  course,  superficial; 
it  should  be  examined  on  its  actual  desirability. 

The  proposition  comes  into  relation  with  the  general 
idea  of  municipal  management  of  public  utilities.  It 
may  be  taken  as  a  principle  of  political  economy  that 
such  management,  in  general,  should  not  be  under- 
taken unless  public  regulation  has  proved  to  be  a  failure. 
Such  failure  is  most  likely  to  occur  in  connection  with 
monopolies,  and  the  argument  is  strongest  in  the  case 
of  natural  monopolies,  such  as  water  supply.  But 
in  the  case  of  milk  supplies,  monopoly  is  seldom  ad- 
vanced as  a  reason,  the  proposal  of  municipalization 
being  based  upon  desired  expediency  of  regulation  or 
efficiency  of  operation. 

As  a  general  principle,  "  reasonably  successful  regula- 
tion, "  writes  the  economist  Taussig,8  "is  more  easy 
to  attain  than  reasonably  successful  public  manage- 
ment," and  under  conditions  in  the  United  States  there 
has  been  a  marked  and  justifiable  tendency  to  rely 
upon  private  enterprise  for  the  performance  of  even 


HOW  SOLVE  THE  PROBLEM?  173 

distinctly  public  services  of  an  industrial  character. 
The  supplying  of  water  to  town  and  city  dwellers  has 
been  (as  another  economic  authority9  says)  "the  only 
important  exception  .  .  .  and  this  has  been  under- 
taken by  municipal  governments  less  because  of  any 
distrust  of  private  enterprise  in  this  field  than  because 
good  water  has  been  demanded  by  public  opinion  even 
before  the  business  of  supplying  it  gave  promise  of 
proving  financially  successful."  The  writer  j ust  quoted 
also  cautions  us  that,  in  general,  "the  objections  to 
such  policy  [municipal  ownership  or  management]  for 
the  cities  of  the  United  States  are  very  strong. "  10 

In  point  of  actual  operation  the  public  assumption 
of  the  milk  trade,  especially  by  large  cities,  would 
obviously  involve  serious  difficulties  not  found  in  the 
simple  taking-over  of  a  water  system.  In  view  of  the 
fact  that  there  are  as  yet  (so  far  as  the  writer  knows) 
no  data  of  the  actual  operation  of  any  such  plan,  cau- 
tion is  certainly  justified.  The  immediate  embarrass- 
ment arising  from  disturbance  of  the  milk  trade  must 
be  considered,  as  well  as  the  possible  evils  of  political 
control.  The  debate  between  those  who  believe  that 
the  difficulties  of  the  milk  problem  can  thus  be  swept 
away  at  a  stroke  and  those  who  hold  that  satisfactory 
public  supervision  is  not  only  possible  but  safer  and 
more  favorable  to  efficiency  than  public  management 
would  be,  is  not  unlikely  to  issue  into  some  trial  of  the 
idea.*  Auspicious  conditions  for  this  might  possibly 

*  The  author  has  not  been  able  to  obtain  any  information  as  to 
whether  the  idea  of  municipalization  has  been  put  into  practice  any- 
where in  the  United  States.  At  Jamestown,  N.  Y.,  however,  a  plan 
has  been  under  consideration  (Western  Medical  News,  June,  1915). 
Municipal  milk  plants,  mainly  for  pasteurization,  have  been  proposed 


174  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

be  found  in  a  well-governed  municipality,  of  the  smaller 
size,  where  the  town  functions  of  individual  farmer- 
retailers  could  readily  be  assumed  by  the  municipality 
without  serious  disturbance.  In  instances  where  the 
question  of  the  tuberculin  test  is  being  agitated,  farmers 
might  prefer  to  sell  to  a  cooperative  or  municipal  pas- 
teurizing and  distributing  plant  rather  than  under- 
take the  test.  Such  a  plant  might  possibly  be  financed 
and  managed  by  an  association  of  citizens  with  the 
object  of  securing  better  milk  and  eliminating  in- 
efficiency in  distribution,  as  an  alternative  to  munic- 
ipal management.  In  short,  as  with  some  other  pro- 
posals of  cooperation  or  municipalization,  exceptional 
local  conditions  might  perhaps  render  such  a  project 
feasible.  But  the  sweeping  claims  attached  to  the 
general  idea  must  certainly  be  viewed  as  extravagant. 

THE  GIST  OF  THE  MATTER 

To  sum  up  the  salient  factors  in  the  solution  of  the 
problem:— 

Milk  must  be  both  safe  and  decent. — It  should  also 
be  of  known  food  value. 

To  secure  Decency:  Supplies  should  be  controlled  by 
laboratory  tests  supplemented  by  inspection  in  which 
instruction  in  simple,  rational  methods  of  clean  milk 
production  should  play  the  chief  part. 

in  several  instances.  The  Health  Officer  of  Brookline,  Mass.,  makes 
such  a  proposal  in  a  recent  report.  The  most  conspicuous  plan  of  munic- 
ipal management  is  that  recently  proposed  by  a  legislative  commission 
in  Rhode  Island  (see  Appendix  E).  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  even 
a  socialist,  John  Spargo,  while  accepting  the  theory  of  socialization  of 
milk  supplies,  has  not  favored  attempting  to  apply  it  under  American 
conditions  ("The  Common  Sense  of  the  Milk  Question,"  1908). 


HOW  SOLVE  THE  PROBLEM?  175 

To  secure  Safety:  All  milk,  excepting  possibly  a  class 
of  the  highest  grade,  should  be  pasteurized  under  ade- 
quate official  supervision.* 

To  secure  Justice:  Milk  should  be  graded  and  labelled 
on  the  basis  of  laboratory  tests  and  pasteurization. 

Grading  and  the  laboratory  are  the  most  important 
single  means  of  sanitary  control. 

Grading  is  the  most  important  single  factor  in  eco- 
nomic adjustment. 

Quality  should  be  recognized  through  fair  milk  prices 
to  both  farmer  and  dealer. 

The  advantages  of  centralizing  at  a  few  plants  the 
operations  of  handling,  pasteurization,-  bottling,  and 
distribution  should  be  recognized. 

WHO  IS  TO  SOLVE  THE  PROBLEM? 

While  the  various  factors  in  the  milk  problem  some- 
times appear  to  have  reached  a  pass  which  may  be 
described  as  a  puzzle,  a  deadlock,  or  a  " muddle,"  its 
solution  should  not  be  so  difficult  as  it  often  seems, 
provided  only  that  facts  be  recognized  and  right  prin- 
ciples adopted.  It  will  not,  however,  be  lastingly 
solved  by  any  one  group  of  persons  without  regard  to 
the  others  concerned. 

Health  authorities  must  adopt  improved  methods 
of  sanitation  and,  with  legislative  sanction  and  sup- 
port, establish  rational  regulation  based  upon  the 
grading  principle. 

*  It  may  here  be  again  noted  that,  although  the  recommendations 
of  the  National  Commission  on  Milk  Standards  leave  the  pasteuriza- 
tion of  "  Grade  A  "  milk  optional,  the  majority  of  the  commissioners 
voted  in  favor  of  the  pasteurization  of  all  milk. 


176  THE  MODERN  MILK  PROBLEM 

Legislators  must  recognize  the  necessity  of  legisla- 
tion authorizing  such  regulation,  as  opposed  to  the 
dangers  of  inaction  or  partisan  interest. 

Agricultural  authorities  must  advise  the  farmer  in 
the  methods  of  producing  sanitary  milk  efficiently. 

The  dairy  farmer  must  welcome  this  assistance  and 
make  use  of  all  possible  means  of  improving  his  methods 
and  management,  and  he  must  organize. 

The  dealer  must  respect  the  interests  of  the  farmer, 
work  for  the  solution  of  their  common  problems,  and 
pay  a  fair  price  for  milk  according  to  quality. 

The  consumer,  finally,  must  recognize  quality  in 
milk;  he  must  be  willing  to  pay  a  fair  price  for  good 
milk  and  a  reasonably  higher  price  for  better  milk. 


REFERENCES 

(References  are  given  for  the  more  important  matters  cited  in 
the  text,  but  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  make  the  list  exhaustive.) 

CHAPTER  I.    WHY  THERE  is  A  MILK  PROBLEM 

1.  Sedgwick,  Wm.  T.,  "Principles  of  Sanitary  Science  and  the 

Public  Health,"  New  York:  The  Macmillan  Co.,  1905,  p.  263. 

2.  Farmers'  Bulletin  363,  1910  (reprint,  1915),  pp.  33-35. 

3.  Ibid.,  p.  7. 

4.  North,  C.  E.,  "Safeguarding  Nature's  Most  Valuable  Food, 

Milk,"  pamphlet  prepared  for  the  New  York  Milk  Com- 
mittee, 1915.  Cf.  note,  "The  bacteriology  of  milk  from 
normal  udders,"  Jour.  Am.  Med.  Assn.,  1916,  vol.  LXVI, 
p.  1930. 

5.  U.  S.  Children's  Bureau,  "Baby-saving  Campaigns,"  1913,  p.  45. 

6.  Park,  Wm.  H.,  and  Holt,  L.  R.,  "Report  upon  the  results  with 

different  kinds  of  pure  and  impure  milk  in  infant  feeding  in 
tenement  houses  and  institutions  of  New  York  City:  A 
clinical  and  bacteriological  study,"  Archives  of  Pediatrics, 
Dec.,  1903. 

7.  Meigs,  Grace.     (Children's  Bureau,  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Labor), 

"  Other  factors  in  infant  mortality  than  the  milk  supply,  and 
their  control,"  Am.  Jour.  Public  Health,  1916,  vol.  VI,  p.  847. 

8.  "Milk  and  Its  Relation  to  the  Public  Health,"  Bull.  56,  Hyg. 

Lab.,  U.  S.  Public  Health  Service,  1909,  p.  25. 

9.  Rosenau,  M.  J.,  "The  Milk  Question,"  Boston:  Houghton 

Mifflin  Co.,  1912,  p.  90. 
10.  Biggs,  H.  M.,  "Milk-borne  septic  sore  throat — a  new  public 

health  problem,"  Medical  Record,  Dec.  4,  1915. 
Davis,  D.  J.,  "Milk  epidemics  of  septic  sore  throat  in  the 
United  States  and  their  relation  to  streptococci,"  Science, 
Nov.  13,  1914,  p.  1037. 

MacNutt,  J.  S.,  "A  Manual  for  Health  Officers,"  New  York: 
John  Wiley  and  Sons,  Inc.,  1915,  p.  288. 
177 


178  REFERENCES 

11.  Park,  Wm.  H.,  "The  role  of  bovine  tuberculosis  in  the  produc- 

tion of  human  tuberculosis,"  Trans.  XV  Internat.  Congress 
on  Hyg.  and  Demography,  1912,  vol.  IV,  pp.  267-72. 

12.  Rosenau,  M.  J.,  "Preventive  Medicine  and  Hygiene,"  New 

York:  D.  Appleton  and  Co.,  1913,  pp.  124-25. 

13.  Ibid.,  p.  124. 

14.  Rosenau,  M.  J.,  "The  Milk  Question,"  p.  97. 

15.  Goler,  G.  W.,  2d  Ann.  Trans.  Am.  Assn.  for  Study  and  Prev< 

of  Infant  Mortality,  1911. 

16.  North,  pamphlet  cited. 

17.  Kelley,  Eugene  R.:  "The  evidence  available  as  to  the  relative 

importance  of  milk  as  a  means  of  transmission  of  communi- 
cable diseases,  compared  with  other  means  of  transmission," 
Rpt.  of  Special  Milk  Board  of  Mass.  State  Dept.  of  Health, 
1916;  "The  quantitative  relationship  of  milk-borne  infection 
in  the  transmission  of  human  communicable  diseases,"  Jour. 
Am.  Med.  Assn.,  1916,  vol.  LXVII,  p.  1997. 

CHAPTER  II.    THE  CASE  TO-DAY 

1.  Sedgwick,  op.  cit.,  pp.  271-72. 

2.  Rosenau,  "The  Milk  Question,"  pp.  19-20. 

3.  Parker,  H.  N.,  "The  city  milk  trade,"  Nat.  Mun.  Review,  Oct., 

1913,  p.  737. 

4.  Cook,  L.  B.,  "The  encouragement  of  clean  milk  production," 

Circ.  38  (from  62d  Ann.  Rept.),  Mass.  State  Bd.  of  Agricul- 
ture, 1915. 

5.  Rosenau,  "The  Milk  Question,"  pp.  243-44. 

6.  Parker,  loc.  cit. 

7.  Conn,  H.  W.,  "Will  any  milk  do?",  Harper's  Weekly,  Feb.  8, 

1913. 

8.  Luening,  F.  W.,  Deputy  Health  Commissioner,  Milwaukee: 

personal  communication. 

9.  Chapin,  C.  V.,  "Effective  lines  of  health. work,"  Providence 

Medical  Jour.,  Jan.,  1916. 

10.  Chapin,  personal  communication,  Sept.  29,  1916. 

11.  Schneider,  Franz,  Jr.,  "Relative  values  in  public  health  work," 

Am.  Jour.  Public  Health,  Sept.,  1916. 

12.  Boston  Transcript,  March  3,  1916. 


REFERENCES  179 


CHAPTER  III.    THE  SANITARY  FACTORS 

1.  Parker,  loc.  cit. 

2.  Sedgwick,  op.  cit.,  p.  265. 

3.  Boston  Med.  and  Surg.  Jour.,  vol.  126,  1892,  p.  25.    (Quoted  in 

Bull.  56,  Hyg.  Lab.,  U.  S.  Public  Health  Service,  p.  450.) 

4.  Kelley,    Ernest,    "Medical    milk    commissions    and    certified 

milk,"  Bull.  1,  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agriculture,  1913. 
Coit,  Henry  L.,  "The  work  of  medical  milk  commissions  .  .  .  ," 

Trans.  XV  Internal.   Congress  on  Hyg.  and   Demography, 

1912,  vol.  IV,  p.  611. 
"Methods  and  standards  for  the  production  and  distribution 

of  'certified  milk/"  adopted  by  the  Am.  Assn.  of  Med. 

Milk  Commissions,   1912:   Reprint  85  from  Public  Health 

Reports. 

5.  Brew,  James  D.,  "Milk  quality  as  determined  by  present  dairy 

score  cards,"  Bull.  398,  N.  Y.  Agric.  Experiment  Station, 
Geneva,  N.  Y.,  1915. 

6.  Harris,  J.  A.,  Science,  Oct.  8,  1915,  p.  503. 

7.  Brainerd  and  Mallory,  "A  study  of  the  bacterial  count  and 

dairy  score  card  in  city  milk  inspection,"  Bull.,  Virginia 
Polytechnic  Institute,  Sept.,  1911. 

8.  Harding,  Ruehle,  Wilson,  and  Smith,  "The  effect  of  certain 

dairy  operations  upon  the  germ  content  of  milk,"  Bull.  365, 
N.  Y.  Agric.  Experiment  Station,  Geneva,  N.  Y.,  1913. 

9.  Ibid. 

10.  North,  "A  Survey  of  dairy  score  cards,"  Am.  Jour.  Public 

Health,  1917,  vol.  VII,  p.  25. 

11.  North,  "Sterilizing  stations  in  dairy  districts,"  Jour.  Am.  Public 

Health  Assn.,  1911,  vol.  I  (o.  s.  VII),  p.  654. 

12.  North,  "The  market  value  of  cleanliness  in  milk  production," 

address  delivered  at  36th  Ann.  Convention,  N.  Y.  State 
Dairymen's  Assn.,  1912. 

13.  North,  "Bacterial  testing  versus  dairy  inspection,  Am.  Jour. 

Public  Health,  1916,  vol.  VI,  p.  572. 

14.  See  10. 

15.  "Infant  mortality  and  milk  stations,"  special  report  of  Com- 

mittee on  Reduction  of  Infant  Mortality,  of  the  N.  Y.  Milk 


180  REFERENCES 

Committee,  1912;  Kerr,  J.  W.,  "Data  regarding  operations 
of  infants'  milk  depots  in  the  United  States  in  1910,"  Re- 
print 64  from  Public  Health  Rpts.;  and  many  other  sources. 

16.  Am.  Food  Jour.,  Aug.,  1907,  p.  33.    (Quoted  in  Bull.  56,  Hyg. 

Lab.,  U.  S.  Public  Health  Service,  1909,  p.  380.) 

17.  Reprint  141  from  Public  Health  Rpts.,  1913. 

18.  Reprint  192  from  Public  Health  Rpts.,  1914. 

19.  See  17. 

20.  Reprint  295  from  Public  Health  Rpts.,  1915. 

21.  Weinzirl,   John,   "A   safe   and   sane  milk  supply,"   read   in 

Jan.,  1916,  before  Subsection  D-IV,  Sec.  VIII,  Pan-American 
Scientific  Congress;  to  be  printed  by  the  Congress. 

22.  Campbell,  H.  C.,  "Comparison  of  the  bacterial  count  of  milk 

with  the  sediment  or  dirt  test,"  Bull.  361,  U.  S.  Dept.  of 
Agriculture,  June  29,  1916. 

23.  Wells,  C.  H.,  "The  successful  efforts  of  a  small  city  to  secure  a 

milk  supply  from  tuberculin-tested  cows,"  Am.  Jour.  Public 
Health,  1912,  vol.  II,  p.  703. 

24.  Reprint  141  from  Public  Health  Rpts.,   1913.     Cf.  bulletins 

relating  to  pasteurization  published  by  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agri- 
culture. 

25.  Reprint  141  from  Public  Health  Rpts.,  1913. 

26.  Jordan,  E.  0.,  "The  case  for  pasteurization,"  Trans.  XV  In- 

ternat.  Congress  on  Hyg.  and  Demography,  vol.  IV,  p.  627; 
Ayers,  S.  H.,  "The  present  status  of  the  pasteurization  of 
milk,"  Bull.  342,  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agriculture. 

27.  Kilbourne,  Chas.  H.,  "The  Pasteurization  of  Milk  from  the 

Mechanical  Viewpoint,"  New  York:  John  Wiley  and  Sons, 
Inc.,  1916.  (The  dealer  contemplating  pasteurization  or 
improvement  of  methods  will  find  this  book  of  advantage  in 
comparing  different  types  of  commercial  pasteurizing  ma- 
chinery.) 

28.  "The  value  of  boiled  milk,"  editorial,  Jour.  Am.  Med.  Assn., 

1916,  vol.  LXVII,  p.  1674. 

29.  Ayers,  S.  H.,  and  Johnson,  W.  T.,  Jr.,  "Pasteurization  in  bottles 

and  the  process  of  bottling  hot  pasteurized  milk,"  Jour.  In- 
fectious Diseases,  1914,  vol.  XIV,  p.  217. 

30.  Sedgwick,  Wm.  T.,  "American  achievements  and  American 


REFERENCES  181 

failures  in  public  health  work,"  Am.  Jour.  Public  Health,  1915, 
vol.  V,  p.  1105. 

31.  Bahlman,  Clarence,  "Milk  clarifiers,"  Am.  Jour.  Public  Health, 

1916,  vol.  VI,  p.  854. 

32.  Baldwin,  H.  B.,  "Some  observations  on  homogenized  milk  and 

cream,"  Am.  Jour.  Public  Health,  1916,  vol.  VI,  p.  862. 

CHAPTER  IV.    THE  ECONOMIC  FACTORS 

1.  Cook,  L.  B.,  loc.  cit.  under  Ch.  II. 

2.  Boston  Transcript,  March  8,  1916. 

•  3.  Clean  Milk  Bulletin  (Charles  E.  North),  Dec.,  1911. 

4.  Editorial,  Jacksonville,  Fla.,  Times-Union,  March  6,  1913. 

5.  Kelly,  Ernest,  "Factors  influencing  the  cost  of  milk  to  the 

consumer,"  Hoard's  Dairyman,  April  24,  1914. 

6.  Bull.   156,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  March,   1915; 

Monthly  Review,  same  Bureau,  vol.  II,  no.  6,  June,  1916. 

7.  Kelly,  loc.  cit. 

8.  Kelly,  loc.  cit. 

9.  Cook,  loc.  cit. 

10.  Williams,  John  R.,  "The  economic  problems  of  milk  distribu- 

tion in  their  relation  to  the  public  health,"  Trans.  XV  In- 
ternal. Congress  on  Hyg.  and  Demography,  1912,  vol.  V, 
p.  128. 

11.  Report  on  Milk  Investigation,  Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce, 

1915,  p.  32;  cf.  p.  61. 

12.  Ibid.,  pp.  49  ff. 

13.  Bull.  Vt.  State  Bd.  of  Health,  Dec.  1,  1916. 

CHAPTER  V.    How  SOLVE  THE  PROBLEM? 

1.  North,  C.  E.,  "The  public  value  of  different  milks,"  Med. 

Record,  Nov.  22,  1913;  "Safeguarding  Nature's  Most  Valu- 
able Food— Milk,"  booklet  issued  by  N.  Y.  Milk  Committee, 
1915. 

2.  North,  "Bacterial  testing  versus  dairy  inspection,"  Am.  Jour. 

Public  Health,  1916,  vol.  VI,  p.  578. 

3.  Weinzirl,  op.  cit.  under  Ch.  III. 

4.  Russell,  H.  L.,   "The  function  of  the  state  in  milk-control 


182  REFERENCES 

work,"  Trans.  XV  Internal.  Congress  on  Hyg.  and  Dem- 
ography, 1912,  vol.  IV,  p.  600  f. 

5.  Chapin,  C.  V.,  Report  on  State  Public  Health  Work,  based  on 

a  survey  of  state  boards  of  health,  Am.  Med.  Assn.  (n.  d., 
1915  or  1916),  p.  171. 

6.  North,  loc.  cit.  (2),  p.  573. 

7.  Straus,  Nathan,  "The  relations  of  the  city  to  the  milk  supply," 

Am.  Jour.  Public  Health,  1915,  vol.  V,  p.  11. 

8.  Taussig,  F.  W.,  "Principles  of  Economics,"  New  York:  The 

Macmillan  Co.,  1913,  p.  413. 

9.  Seager,   H.   R.,    "Introduction  to  Economics,"   New  York: 

Henry  Holt  and  Co.,  1906,  p.  457. 
10.  Seager,  "Economics:  Briefer  Course,"  1909,  p.  368. 

GENERAL  REFERENCES 

Although  the  literature  of  milk  is  very  voluminous,  there  are  few 
good  books  on  the  subject.  Most  of  the  vital  information  is  scat- 
tered through  periodical  and  bulletin  literature  such  as  that  to 
which  the  preceding  references  relate. 

The  most  valuable  single  item  is  the  reports  of  the  National 
Commission  on  Milk  Standards  appointed  by  the  New  York  Milk 
Committee  (105  East  22d  Street,  New  York  City),  which  contain 
important  recommendations  concerning  grading  and  regulation  of 
milk  and  milk  products. 

A  comprehensive  work  dealing  with  the  various  phases  of  milk 
industry  and  methods  of  control,  by  Horatio  N.  Parker,  has  re- 
cently appeared:  "  City  Milk  Supply"  (McGraw-Hill,  1917). 

One  of  the  best  general  works,  non-technical,  is  Rosenau's  "The 
Milk  Question"  (Houghton  Mifflin,  1912). 

"Milk  and  the  Public  Health,"  by  W.  G.  Savage,  an  English 
authority  who  quotes  freely  from  American  sources  (Macmillan, 
1912),  is  an  excellent  summary  of  professional  milk  literature  up 
to  that  date.  This  work  deals  with  the  bacteriology  and  bac- 
teriological examination  of  milk,  milk  and  human  disease,  and 
control  of  milk  supplies.  A  still  more  recent  work,  also  English, 
of  the  same  character,  is  "Milk  and  Its  Hygienic  Relations,"  by 
Dr.  Janet  E.  Lane-Claypon  (Longmans  Green,  1916). 


REFERENCES  183 

In  1908  the  Hygienic  Laboratory  of  the  United  States  Public 
Health  Service  published  a  large  volume  entitled  "Milk  and  its 
Relation  to  the  Public  Health,"  embodying  monographs  on  the 
various  phases  by  different  collaborators.  This  was  revised  and 
enlarged  and  republished  as  Bulletin  No.  56  of  the  Laboratory,  1909. 

Bulletins  on  various  subjects  relating  to  milk  and  to  dairy  hus- 
bandry and  industry  are  constantly  being  published  by  the  United 
States  Public  Health  Service,  by  the  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture,  and  by  state  departments  of  agriculture  and  experiment 
stations.  Papers  and  notes  appearing  in  such  journals  as  ar£ 
mentioned  in  the  foregoing  bibliography  may  also  be  consulted 
for  current  developments.. 


APPENDIX  A 

SOME  MILK  STATISTICS 

GENERAL  ESTIMATES  FOR  THE  UNITED  STATES  * 

Total  annual  production  of  milk  (1915) 

11,590,000,000  gallons  f 
(115  per  capita) 

Value  of  the  same,  on  the  farms $2,320,000,000 

Milch  cows  on  farms  (Jan.  1,  1916) 21,988,000 

Value  of  the  same $1,185,119,000 

Average  yield  per  cow 537  gallons  per  year 

Average  per  capita  use  of  milk  as  such. .       0.6  pints  per  day 

*  Drawn  from  Monthly  Crop  Report,  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agriculture, 
vol.  2,  no.  1,  Jan.  31,  1916. 

t  Of  this  the  larger  part  is  used  for  the  manufacture  of  butter,  cheese, 
condensed  milk,  and  other  milk  products.  The  proportion  consumed 
as  milk  is  estimated  as  about  one-quarter  of  the  whole. 


185 


186 


APPENDIX  A 


POPULATION  AND  MILCH  Cows  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  Compiled 
and  computed  from  the  U.  S.  Census  and  the  Yearbook  of  the  U.  S. 
Department  of  Agriculture  for  1915.  (Except  as  otherwise  noted, 
figures  relate  to  January  1  of  each  year.) 


Year 

Population  of 
continental 
United  States 

Milch  cows 

Milch  cows 
per  1,000  of 
population 

Average 
price  per 
head 

1880          .    . 

*  50,155,783 

*  12,443,120 

t248 

$23  27 

1890...  
1900  

*  62,947,714 
75,451,000 

*  16,511,950 
16,292,000 

J263 
216 

22.14 
31.60 

1900 

*  75,994,575 

*  17,135,633 

t225 

1901  

76,938,000 

16,834,000 

219 

30.00 

1902  

78,556,000 

16,697,000 

212 

29  23 

1903 

80  174  000 

17,105  000 

213 

30  21 

1904  

81,792,000 

17,420,000 

213 

29.21 

1905  
1906 

83,410,000 
85  028  000 

17,572,000 
19  794  000 

211 
233 

27.44 
29  44 

1907  

86,646,000 

20,968,000 

242 

31  00 

1908  
1909  

88,264,000 
89,882,000 

21,194,000 
21,720,000 

240 
242 

30.67 
32.36 

1910  

91,500,000 

21,801,000 

238 

35  29 

1910 

1  91  972  266 

t  20  625  432 

±224 

1911  

93,118,000 

20,823,000 

224 

39.97 

1912 

94,736,000 

20,699  000 

219 

39  39 

1913  

96,354,000 

20,497,000 

213 

45.02 

1914  
1915 

97,972,000 
99590000 

20,737,000 
21  262  000 

212 
213 

53.94 
55  33 

1916  

101,208,000 

21,988,000 

217 

53.90 

*  Census  as  of  June  1. 
t  Census  as  of  April  15. 
t  At  date  of  census. 


APPENDIX  A 


187 


MILCH  Cows,  BY  STATES:  1905,  1915,  and  1916.  Fundamental 
figures  are  taken  from  Yearbooks  of  the  U.S.  Department  of  Agriculture 
for  1904,  1914,  and  1915. 

(Numbers  represent  thousands,  estimated  for  January  first  of  each 
year.) 


1905 

1915 

Increase 
(per  cent} 

Decrease* 
(per  cent} 

1916* 

Maine  
New  Hampshire  .... 
Vermont  

189 
130 
285 

157 
95 

268 

17 

27 
6 

159 
97 
273 

Massachusetts  
Rhode  Island  

Connecticut  
New  York  
New  Jersey  

191 
25 

131 
1,722 
185 

157 
23 

118 
1,509 
146 

18 

8 

10 
12 

20 

155 

22 

119 
1,539 
152 

Pennsylvania  
Delaware  

1,087 
35 

943 
41 

17 

13 

971 
42 

Maryland 

147 

177 

20 

181 

Virginia  

153 

349 

128 

359 

West  Virginia  
North  Carolina  .... 
South  Carolina  

180 
193 
110 

234 
315 
185 

30 
63 

68 

241 
321 
189 

*  In  considering  the  exact  significance  of  the  movements  shown  in 
this  table,  the  ratio  between  the  estimated  number  of  milch  cows  and 
the  estimated  population  of  the  state  at  each  date  should  be  taken  into 
account.  Thus  relatively  to  population,  several  other  States — e.  g., 
Illinois — would  be  placed  in  the  group  showing  decrease  as  between 
1905  and  1915.  Figures  on  actual  production  of  milk  in  the  years 
taken  are  not  available,  but  the  question  of  productivity  may  be  dis- 
regarded in  considering  the  general  phenomena  brought  out  by  the  table. 

t  This  column  is  added  to  show  the  recent  trend,  as  between  1915 
and  1916.  It  will  be  observed  that  those  States  which  showed  a  de- 
crease during  the  preceding  decade  have  now  (and  perhaps  had  before 
the  close  of  the  decade)  entered  a  period  of  increase,  with  the  exception 
of  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island.  In  Connecticut,  however,  this 
increase  appears  to  be  less  than  proportionate  to  the  increase  in  popu- 
lation. 


188 


APPENDIX  A 


1905 

1915 

Increase 
(per  cent) 

Decrease 
(per  cent) 

Georgia   

277 

406 

47 

Florida 

87 

133 

53 

Ohio  

791 

895 

13 

Indiana          .  . 

548 

646 

18 

Illinois 

995 

1  007 

1 

Michigan  

556 

814 

46 

Wisconsin 

1096 

1  626 

48 

Minnesota 

837 

1  186 

42 

Iowa  
Missouri 

1,336 
570 

1,377 
797 

3 
40 

North  Dakota  
South  Dakota  
Nebraska 

194 

402 
669 

339 
453 
625 

75 
13 

7 

Kansas  

671 

726 

8 

Kentucky  
Tennessee  

287 
283 

390 
355 

39 
25 

Alabama  
Mississippi  

230 

272 

384 
434 

67 
60 

Louisiana  

166 

268 

61 

Texas 

838 

1  086 

30 

Oklahoma  
Arkansas  

187 
281 

494 

387 

164 

38 

Montana  
Wyoming 

55 
20 

114 

46 

107 
130 

Colorado  
New  Mexico 

121 
20 

205 
68 

70 
240 

Arizona  

19 

44 

132 

Utah  

73 

92 

26 

Nevada 

17 

24 

41 

Idaho  

60 

120 

100 

Washington.  .  . 

159 

253 

59 

Oregon 

139 

210 

51 

California  

355 

541 

52 

All  States  

17,572 

21,262 

20.9 

1916 

414 
136 
922 
672 
1,047 

847 
1,675 
1,210 
1,391 

837 

373 

485 
650 
762 
406 

366 
396 
447 
271 
1,119 

519 
402 
129 
50 
219 

76 
53 
96 
25 

126 

263 
216 
568 

21,988 


APPENDIX  B 
GRADING  SYSTEMS 

COMMISSION  ON  MILK  STANDARDS 
of  the  New  York  Milk  Committee  * 

Proper  milk  standards  are  essential  to  efficient  milk  con- 
trol by  public  health  authorities.  In  the  first  place  health 
authorities  must  ascertain  that  the  chemical  composition 
corresponds  with  established  definitions  of  milk  as  food,  but 
their  more  important  duty  is  to  prevent  the  transmission  of 
disease.  This  means  the  prevention  of  the  transmission  by 
milk  of  infant  diarrhea,  typhoid  fever,  tuberculosis,  septic 
throat  infections,  scarlet  fever,  diphtheria,  and  other  infec- 
tious diseases.  In  the  interests  of  milk  consumers  public 
health  authorities  must  take  positive  action  to  prevent  the 
transmission  of  any  of  these  diseases,  in  addition  to  their 
duty  of  preserving  the  food  value  of  milk. 

The  milk  producer  is  interested  in  proper  standards  for 
milk,  and  should  support  a  movement  to  secure  proper  stand- 
ards, for  the  reason  that  these  contribute  to  the  well-being 
and  dignity  of  the  milk  industry  itself.  Proper  standards, 
rightly  enforced,  distinguish  between  the  good-milk  producer 

*  Extracts  from  3d  Report  (Public  Health  Reports,  Feb.  16,  1917). 
This  commission  is  national  in  personnel  and  scope  and  is  loosely  known 
as  the  "  National  Commission  on  Milk  Standards."  The  reader  is 
earnestly  referred  to  the  reports  of  the  Commission  for  fuller  informa- 
tion on  milk  control,  production,  handling,  and  distribution  than  can 
be  given  in  these  limited  excerpts.  These  reports  are  the  most  im- 
portant item  in  milk  control  literature.  They  may  be  obtained  from 
the  N.  Y.  Milk  Committee,  105  East  22d  St.,  New  York  City. 

189 


190  APPENDIX  B 

and  the  bad-milk  producer.  This  inevitably  will  lead  to  the 
improvement  of  dairy  farming,  and  eventually  to  an  increase 
in  the  financial  prosperity  of  the  milk  producer  himself 
through  better  prices  for  better  milk.  It  will  enable  the  pro- 
ducer to  get  properly  paid  for  the  quality  of  milk  he  produces, 
and  thus  put  that  industry  for  the  first  time  upon  a  depend- 
able basis. 

The  milk  dealer  finds  the  classification  of  milk  resulting 
from  milk  standards  to  his  financial  advantage  for  the  reason 
that  it  identifies  clearly  first-class  milk  and  distinguishes  it 
from  second-class  milk.  Such  a  distinction  gives  to  the  seller 
of  first-class  milk  the  commercial  rewards  which  such  milk 
deserves,  and  the  official  label  creates  a  market  for  first-class 
milk  which  the  dealer  alone  is  unable  to  create. 

For  milk  consumers  the  setting  of  definite  standards  ac- 
companied by  labeling  with  official  control  of  the  labels 
makes  it  possible  to  know  the  character  of  the  milk  which  is 
purchased,  and  to  distinguish  good  milk  from  bad  milk.  The 
establishment  of  standards  for  quality,  and  of  labels  on 
retail  packages  indicating  the  quality,  compels  the  industry 
not  only  to  purchase  milk  on  a  quality  basis,  but  also  to 
sell  milk  on  a  quality  basis.  The  selling  of  milk  strictly  on  a 
quality  basis,  which  includes  not  only  chemical  composition 
but  sanitary  character,  makes  it  possible  for  consumers  by  an 
inspection  of  the  label  intelligently  to  select  milk  which  in 
quality  and  price  is  most  suitable  for  their  needs. 

ADMINISTRATIVE    EQUIPMENT 

Standards  are  useless  unless  properly  guarded  and  enforced. 
The  chief  objection  that  has  been  raised  to  a  grading  system 
for  milk  is  the  difficulty  of  insuring  that  milk  labeled  as  of  a 
certain  grade  is  actually  of  that  grade  when  sold  to  the  con- 
sumer. 

The  prime  requisite  for  efficient  milk  control  is  that  health 


APPENDIX  B  191 

departments  shall  be  adequately  equipped  with  men,  money, 
and  laboratory  facilities.  The  commission  is  of  the  opinion 
that  satisfactory  results  cannot  be  expected  from  laws  when 
there  is  not  sufficient  appropriation,  and  when  there  is  no 
machinery  for  their  enforcement.  A  survey  of  the  money 
appropriated  for  milk  control  shows  that  in  the  majority  of 
municipalities  this  is  entirely  insufficient  for  public  needs. 
The  key  to  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  proper  use 
of  grade  labels  is  the  laboratory.  The  establishment  and 
operation  of  an  efficient  milk  testing  laboratory  is  commonly 
supposed  to  be  an  item  of  great  expense.  This,  however, 
the  commission  is  convinced,  is  a  mistake,  since  there  are 
numerous  laboratories  scattered  all  over  the  land  not  only 
private,  but  public,  which  are  inexpensive  and  operated  at 
low  cost.  By  efficiency  methods  a  large  number  of  tests  can 
be  made  at  a  very  low  cost.  Even  small  communities  can 
afford  to  maintain  and  operate  such  laboratories.  Where 
for  any  reason  it  is  not  possible  to  do  this,  it  has  proven  to  be 
practicable  for  one  community  to  enter  into  laboratory 
arrangements  with  another,  and  even  several  can  combine 
in  the  use  of  a  common  laboratory. 

GRADING  OF  MILK 

There  is  no  escape  from  the  conclusion  that  milk  on  the 
market  must  be  graded  just  as  other  commodities  such  as 
wheat,  grain,  beef,  etc.,  are  graded.  The  milk  merchant 
must  judge  not  only  of  the  food  value  but  also  of  the  sanitary 
characteristics  of  the  commodity  in  which  he  deals.  .  .  .  The 
high-grade  product,  fresh  and  cold,  will  cost  more  to  buy 
from  the  producer,  and  should  sell  for  more  to  the  consumer 
than  does  the  low-grade  product.  The  commission's  most 
important  work  has  been  the  attempt  to  separate  milk  into 
grades  and  classes.  The  commission  has  endeavored  to  make 
its  grading  system  as  simple  as  possible,  and  at  the  same  time 


192  APPENDIX  B 

to  distinguish  between  milks  which  are  essentially  different 
in  their  sanitary  and  other  character.  The  commission  is 
convinced  that  the  experience  of  the  last  three  years  has 
fully  demonstrated  the  value  of  the  grading  system  in  the 
communities  in  which  it  has  already  been  applied,  both  from 
a  public  health  and  an  economic  standpoint.  The  commis- 
sion believes  that  the  grading  of  milk  offers  a  satisfactory 
solution  for  most  of  the  sanitary  and  economic  problems 
which  have  hitherto  prevented  efficient  milk  control,  and 
that  it  is  feasible  for  small  communities  as  well  as  large 
communities  to  adopt  a  grading  system  and  to  secure  its 
benefits.  .  .  . 

The  Commission  believes  that  all  milk  should  be  classified 
by  dividing  it  into  three  grades,  which  shall  be  designated 
by  the  letters  of  the  alphabet.  It  is  the  sense  of  the  Com- 
mission that  the  essential  part  is  the  lettering  and  that  all 
other  words  on  the  label  are  explanatory.  In  addition  to  the 
letters  of  the  alphabet  used  on  caps  or  labels,  the  use  of  other 
terms  may  be  permitted  so  long  as  such  terms  are  not  the 
cause  of  deception.  Caps  and  labels  shall  state  whether 
milk  is  raw  or  pasteurized.  The  letter  designating  the  grade 
to  which  the  milk  belongs  shall  be  conspicuously  displayed 
on  the  caps  of  bottles  or  the  labels  of  cans. 

The  requirements  for  the  three  grades  shall  be  as  follows: 

Grade  A 

Raw  Milk. — Milk  of  this  class  shall  come  from  cows  free 
from  disease  as  determined  by  tuberculin  tests  and  physical 
examinations  by  a  qualified  veterinarian,  and  shall  be  pro- 
duced and  handled  by  employees  free  from  disease  as  deter- 
mined by  medical  inspection  of  a  qualified  physician,  under 
sanitary  conditions,  such  that  the  bacteria  count  shall  not 
exceed  10,000  per  cubic  centimeter  at  the  time  of  delivery 
to  the  consumer.  It  is  recommended  that  dairies  from  which 


APPENDIX  B  193 

this  supply  is  obtained  shall  score  at  least  80  on  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry  score  card.* 

Pasteurized  Milk. — Milk  of  this  class  shall  come  from  cows 
free  from  disease  as  determined  by  physical  examinations 
by  a  qualified  veterinarian,  and  shall  be  produced  and  han- 
dled under  sanitary  conditions,  such  that  the  bacteria  count 
at  no  time  exceeds  200,000  per  cubic  centimeter.  All  milk  of 
this  class  shall  be  pasteurized  under  official  supervision,  and 
the  bacteria  count  shall  not  exceed  10,000  per  cubic  centi- 
meter at  the  time  of  delivery  to  the  consumer.  It  is  recom- 
mended that  dairies  from  which  this  supply  is  obtained 
should  score  at  least  65  on  the  United  States  Bureau  of 
Animal  Industry  score  card. 

Grade  B 

Milk  of  this  class  shall  come  from  cows  free  from  disease 
as  determined  by  physical  examinations,  of  which  one  each 
year  shall  be  by  a  qualified  veterinarian,  and  shall  be  produced 
and  handled  under  sanitary  conditions,  such  that  the  bac- 
teria count  at  no  time  exceeds  1,000,000  per  cubic  centi- 
meter. All  milk  of  this  class  shall  be  pasteurized  under 
official  supervision,  and  the  bacteria  count  shall  not  exceed 
50,000  per  cubic  centimeter  when  delivered  to  the  consumer. 

It  is  recommended  that  dairies  producing  Grade  B  milk 
should  be  scored,  and  that  the  health  departments  or  the  con- 
trolling departments,  whatever  they  may  be,  strive  to 
bring  these  scores  up  as  rapidly  as  possible. 

Grade  C 

Milk  of  this  class  shall  come  from  cows  free  from  disease, 
as  determined  by  physical  examinations,  and  shall  include 

*  The  fallacy  of  the  present  dairy-score  requirements  for  grades  has 
been  discussed  in  the  present  volume  (pp.  73,  74,  75).  It  is  found  in  all 
the  classifications  given  in  this  appendix. — J.  S.  M. 


194  APPENDIX  B 

all  milk  that  is  produced  under  conditions  such  that  the 
bacteria  count  is  in  excess  of  1,000,000  per  cubic  cen- 
timeter. 

All  milk  of  this  class  shall  be  pasteurized,  or  heated  to  a 
higher  temperature,  and  shall  contain  less  than  50,000 
bacteria  per  cubic  centimeter  when  delivered  to  the  con- 
sumer. 

Whenever  any  large  city  or  community  finds  it  necessary, 
on  account  of  the  length  of  haul  or  other  peculiar  conditions, 
to  allow  the  sale  of  Grade  C  milk,  its  sale  shall  be  surrounded 
by  safeguards  such  as  to  insure  the  restriction  of  its  use  to 
cooking  and  manufacturing  purposes. 

[Recommendation  relative  to  bacteriological  tests  for 
grades: — ] 

That  the  grade  into  which  a  milk  falls  shall  be  determined 
bacteriologically  by  at  least  five  consecutive  bacteria  counts, 
taken  over  a  period  of  not  less  than  one  week  nor  more  than 
one  month,  and  at  least  four  out  of  five  of  these  counts  (80 
per  cent)  must  fall  below  the  limit  or  standard,  set  for  the 
grade  for  which  classification  is  desired. 

[The  Commission's  definition  of  pasteurization  has  been 
quoted  on  a  previous  page  (p.  103).] 

CREAM 

Cream  should  be  classified  in  the  same  grades  as  milk  in 
accordance  with  the  requirements  for  the  grades  of  milk, 
excepting  the  bacterial  standards,  which  in  18  per  cent  cream 
shall  not  exceed  five  times  the  bacterial  standard  allowed 
in  the  same  grade  of  milk. 

Cream  containing  other  percentages  of  fat  shall  be  al- 
lowed a  modification  of  this  required  bacterial  standard  in 
proportion  to  the  change  in  fat. 


APPENDIX  B  195 

Grades  for  Small  Cities  and  Towns 

This  Commission  recognizes  that,  because  of  climate, 
size  of  the  community,  nearness  to  the  sources  of  supply, 
ease  of  transportation,  and  progress  already  made  in  im- 
proving the  general  milk  supply  and  in  educating  the  dairy- 
men and  the  public,  different  communities  are  in  position 
to  secure  varying  degrees  of  excellence  in  their  standards  for 
the  grades  of  milk.  This  Commission,  therefore,  urges  that 
its  standards  for  Grade  A,  B,  and  C  milk  be  regarded  as 
minimum  standards,  and  that  any  community  may  adopt 
higher  requirements  for  its  grades  if  its  conditions  make  this 
feasible  and  desirable. 

As  a  guide  to  health  officers  in  the  establishment  of  grades 
best  adapted  to  their  local  communities,  the  following  gen- 
eral broad  principles  are  offered: — 

(1)  A  careful  preliminary  survey  of  the  milk  situation 
should  be  made  before  the  requirements  of  the  several  grades 
are  adopted. 

(2)  No  matter  how  excellent  the  general  milk  supply  of  a 
community,  it  is  not  all  of  a  single  standard  of  excellence ;  hence 
there  are  actually  different  grades  of  milk  in  every  community, 
and  the  recognition  of  such  grades  is  always  advantageous. 

(3)  Grades  in  any  community  should  always  be  such  as 
to  separate  into  two,  or  at  most  three,  classes  the  milk  supply 
of  that  special  community.    Where  little  or  nothing  has  been 
done  towards  improving  the  general  milk  supply,  it  may  be 
desirable  to  adopt  temporary  grades   (but  not  below  the 
minimum    requirements    suggested    by    this    Commission), 
with  a  time  limit  as  to  when  more  rigid  requirements  for  the 
grades  will  be  enforced. 

(4)  Grades  as  adopted  in  any  community  should  be  such 
as  not,  under  any  circumstances,  to  sanction  the  sale  of  milk 
below  the  minimum  standards  which  it  is  feasible  for  that 
community  to  require. 


196  APPENDIX  B 

(5)  Whatever  departures  are  made  by  any  community 
from  the  exact  definition  of  grades  as  recommended  by  this 
Commission,  several  fundamental  principles  are  recognized 
by  the  Commission  as  of  universal  application,  and  from 
these  there  should  be  no  variation.     These  fundamental 
principles  are: — 

(a)  Grade  A  milk  in  a  general  way,  is  milk  which  complies 
with  requirements  of  such  character  and  degree  that,  for  all 
practical  purposes,  no  real  advantage  would  be  gained  by 
further  and  higher  requirements.  The  standards  for  this 
grade  should,  therefore,  be  placed  high  enough  to  attain  this 
end,  but  not  so  high  as  to  limit  too  greatly  the  supply  or, 
through  unduly  raising  the  price  to  the  consumer,  to  limit 
too  greatly  the  demand. 

(6)  Grade  B  milk  is  all  the  remaining  milk  of  the  com- 
munity which  is  suitable  for  drinking  purposes,  after  pas- 
teurization, but  which  does  not  comply  with  the  high  re- 
quirements for  Grade  A  milk. 

(c)  Grade  C  milk  is  milk  which  falls  below  the  minimum 
requirements  for  milk  suitable  for  drinking  purposes,  even 
after  pasteurization.  Its  use  must  be  confined  to  cooking 
and  manufacturing  purposes.  Recognition  of  this  grade  of 
milk  is  not  recommended  by  this  Commission  except  in 
communities  in  which  such  recognition  is  an  economic  neces- 
sity. 

(6)  The  fundamental  objects  in  grading  milk  are: — 

(a)  To  aid  in  making  safe  for  human  consumption  all 
milk  which  can  legally  be  sold  for  drinking  purposes ; 

(b)  To  distinguish  between  classes  of  milk  which,  while 
all  are  safe,  are  of  different  degrees  of  excellence  in  respect  to 
cleanliness  and  care  in  handling. 

Each  community  should,  therefore,  endeavor  to  grade 
its  milk  supply  so  as  best  to  attain  these  objects  without 
departure  from  the  broad  general  principles  above  laid  down. 


APPENDIX  B  197 

NEW  YORK  CITY  * 

The  basis  of  this  system  is  the  division  of  supplies  into: 
(1)  milk  for  infants,  (2)  milk  for  adults,  and  (3)  milk  for 
cooking  and  manufacturing  purposes  only, — requiring  three 
corresponding  grades. 

Grade  A 

Raw  Milk. — Cows  tuberculin-tested  annually  and  in  good 
physical  condition.  Bacterial  limit,  60,000  per  c.c.  Dairies 
to  score  75  on  the  Department's  score  card.f 

Pasteurized  Milk. — No  tuberculin  test  required,  but  cows 
must  be  healthy — annual  physical  examination.  Bacterial 
limits :  200,000  before,  30,000  after,  pasteurization.  Required 
dairy  score,  68. 

Grade  B 

Pasteurized  Milk. — No  tuberculin  test  required,  but  cows 
must  be  healthy — annual  physical  examination.  Bacterial 
limits — before  pasteurization:  1,500,000  if  pasteurized  in 
city,  300,000  if  pasteurized  outside  city;  after  pasteurization, 
100,000.  Required  dairy  score,  55. 

Grade  C 

("For  cooking  and  manufacturing  purposes  only) 
Pasteurized  Milk. — No  tuberculin  test  required,  but  cows 
must  be  healthy — annual  physical  examination.     Bacterial 
*  Abstracted  from  the  Rules  and  Regulations  relating  to  the  Sale 
of  Milk  and  Cream  of  the  Department  of  Health  of  New  York  City, 
to  which  the  reader  is  referred  for  further  particulars.    (See  also:  Brown, 
Lucius  P.,  "The  experience  of  New  York  City  in  grading  market  milk," 
American  Journal  of  Public  Health,  July,  1916,  p.  671.)     This  classi- 
fication closely  approximates  that  quoted  above. 

t  There  are  also  score  requirements  for  equipment  and  methods 
separately  considered,  in  addition  to  the  total  score  required  under 
each  grade.  See  footnote,  p.  193  of  the  present  volume,  regarding  score 
requirements  in  general. 


198  APPENDIX  B 

limit  after  pasteurization,  300,000.  Required  dairy  score,  40. 
(Grade  C  milk  is  milk  not  conforming  to  the  requirements 
of  any  of  the  above  classes  and  which  has  been  pasteurized 
properly  or  boiled  for  at  least  two  minutes. 

Pasteurization 

Official  definition:  subjection  to  a  temperature  averaging 
145°  F.  for  not  less  than  30  minutes. 

CLASSIFICATION  OF  CREAM 

The  same  classification  applies  to  cream,  but  the  bacterial 
limits  (after  pasteurization,  except  in  the  first  case)  are  as 
follows:  Grade  A  (raw),  300,000;  Grade  A  (pasteurized), 
150,000;  Grade  B  (pasteurized),  500,000;  Grade  C  (pas- 
teurized), 1,500,000. 

The  following  commentary  from  the  Secretary  of  the  New 
York  Milk  Committee,  Mr.  Paul  E.  Taylor,  regarding  the 
effects  of  grading  in  New  York  City,  is  of  interest  (italics 
inserted) : — 

Notwithstanding  the  Department's  activities  in  enforcing  the 
present  standards,  the  good  dealers  and  the  clean  producer  agree 
that  the  new  system  of  grading  milk  on  its  sanitary  character  for  the 
first  time  gives  public  recognition  to  those  who  produce  and  handle  a 
clean  article. 

That  the  dealer  recognizes  the  commercial  value  of  Grade  "A" 
pasteurized  milk  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  one  large  company  doing 
business  in  several  cities,  in  October,  1914,  was  selling  an  average 
daily  total  of  22,000  quarts  of  Grade  "A"  pasteurized  nilk,  pro- 
duced under  conditions  in  accordance  with  requirements  of  the 
New  York  City  Board  of  Health  regulations,  and  the  producers  of 
which  received  a  bonus  because  of  the  extra  care  exercised.  Wher- 
ever this  milk  was  sold  it  bore  the  label  " Grade  A  Pasteurized"  and 
brought  1  to  3  cents  a  quart  more  than  the  ordinary  bottled  milk. 
In  October,  1915,  the  average  daily  sale  of  this  milk  by  the  company 
was  500,000  quarts.  The  managers  of  the  company  say  this  method 


APPENDIX  B  199 

of  giving  recognition  to  clean  milk  is  the  best  thing  that  ever  happened 
to  the  milk  industry. 

.  .  .  The  success  of  the  system  depends  upon  maintaining  the 
integrity  of  the  label. 

About  99  per  cent  of  New  York  City's  milk  supply  is  pasteurized.* 

NEW  YORK  STATE  j 
Grade  At 

Raw  Milk. — Annual  tuberculin  test.  Bacterial  limit: 
60,000.  Dairies  must  score  25  per  cent  for  equipment,  50 
for  methods,  on  the  score  card  officially  prescribed. 

Pasteurized  Milk. — Annual  physical  examination  of  cows. 
Bacterial  limits:  200,000  before  pasteurization;  30,000  after. 
Required  dairy  scores:  25  per  cent  for  equipment,  43  for 
methods. 

Grade  B 

Raw  Milk. — Annual  physical  examination  of  cows.  Bac- 
terial limit:  200,000.  Required  dairy  scores:  23  per  cent  for 
equipment,  37  for  methods. 

Pasteurized  Milk. — Annual  physical  examination  of  cows. 
Bacterial  limits:  1,500,000  before  pasteurization;  100,000 
after.  Required  dairy  scores:  20  per  cent  for  equipment, 
35  for  methods. 

*  Personal  communication,  Dec.  6,  1915. 

f  Abstracted  from  the  Sanitary  Code  established  by  the  Public 
Health  Council  of  the  State  of  New  York,  as  amended  to  and  including 
Oct.  5,  1915.  The  above  are  only  the  salient  requirements;  the  reader 
is  referred  to  Ch.  Ill  of  the  Code  and  its  revisions  for  details.  The 
classification  is  prescribed  to  apply  except  as  otherwise  stated,  through- 
out the  State  with  the  exception  of  New  York  City.  Some  account  of 
its  working  is  given  by  Linsly  R.  Williams,  Deputy  Commissioner  of 
Health,  "The  grading  of  milk  in  small  communities,"  Am.  Jour.  Public 
Health,  Oct.,  1916. 

|  Certified  milk  constitutes  a  special  class. 


200  APPENDIX  B 

Grade  C 

Raw  Milk. — Required  dairy  score,  40  per  cent. 
Pasteurized  Milk. — Same. 

CREAM 

Cream  is  classified  in  the  same  grades,  but  the  bacterial 
limits  are  higher. 

The  bacterial  count  herein  required  shall  be  made  only  at  county 
or  municipal  laboratories  or  such  other  laboratories  as  may  be  ap- 
proved by  the  state  commissioner  of  health. 

In  those  municipalities  where  a  bacterial  count  of  the  milk  is, 
in  the  opinion  of  the  local  health  authorities,  impracticable,  they 
may  in  their  discretion  grade  milk  and  cream  according  to  the  score 
of  the  dairies  producing  it,  as  prescribed  in  this  regulation,  but  no 
such  milk  shall  be  designated  "certified,"  "Grade  A  raw,"  or 
"Grade  A  pasteurized."  * 

This  regulation  shall  not  be  construed  to  rescind  or  modify  any 
existing  local  regulation  or  ordinance  controlling  the  grading  of 
milk  or  cream  established  prior  to  the  first  day  of  September,  1914. 

The  health  authorities  of  any  municipality  may  in  their 
discretion  increase  the  stringency  of  these  regulations  or  add 
to  them  in  any  way  not  inconsistent  with  the  provisions 
thereof. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  above  classification  is  more  lenient 
than  those  preceding.  In  view  of  this  fact  and  the  circum- 
stance that  this  is  the  first  state  classification,  it  may  be 
presumed  that  these  standards  may  later  be  raised. 

RICHMOND,  VA. 

Richmond,  Va.,  a  city  of  some  150,000,  the  health  depart- 
ment of  which  has  long  been  active  in  clean  milk  work,  has 

Such  authorizing  of  grades  according  to  dairy  scores  alone  is  a  very 
serious  defect  of  this  system.    See  footnote,  p.  193. — J.  S.  M. 


APPENDIX  B  201 

recently  established  a  simpler  classification  than  any  of  the 
above,  as  follows: — 

Grade  A 

Raw  Milk. — Cows  free  from  disease  and  tuberculin-tested. 
Employees  free  from  disease.  Bacterial  limit:  25,000  (No- 
vember to  March,  inclusive);  50,000  (April  to  October). 
Required  dairy  score  (U.  S.  Official):  80  points,  of  which 
at  least  45  for  methods. 

Pasteurized  Milk. — Same,  with  bacterial  limit  after  pas- 
teurization of  5,000. 

Grade  B 

Pasteurized  Milk.  Cows  free  from  disease — at  least  one 
official  physical  examination  per  year.  Bacterial  limits: 
250,000  before  pasteurization,  25,000  after.  Required  dairy 
score,  70  (65  permitted,  temporarily). 

Cream  is  classified  in  the  same  manner,  but  with  higher 
bacterial  standards. 

ORANGE,  N.  J. 

The  following  plan  was  adopted  in  1915  under  the  co- 
operative organization  for  milk  control  in  Orange,  N.  J.,  and 
neighboring  municipalities  (see  page  167) : — 

Grade  A 

Raw  Milk. — Cows  in  good  physical  condition  and  tuber- 
culin-tested. Bacterial  limit:  50,000  (November  to  April, 
inclusive);  100,000  (May  to  October). 

Pasteurized  Milk. — Cows  physically  examined.  Bacterial 
limits:  200,000  before  pasteurization  and  30,000  after 
(summer  months);  100,000  before  and  10,000  after  (winter 
months) . 


202  APPENDIX  B 

Grade  B 

Raw  Milk. — Cows  in  good  physical  condition  and  tuber- 
culin-tested. Bacterial  limit:  100,000  (winter  months); 
300,000  (summer  months). 

Pasteurized  Milk. — Cows  physically  examined.  Bacterial 
limits:  750,000  before  pasteurization  and  75,000  after  (sum- 
mer months);  500,000  before  and  40,000  after  (winter 
months) . 

Score  requirements  (U.  S.  Official  card),  respectively: 
75,  70,  65,  60. 

Certified  milk  is  made  an  extra  class. 

EXTENSION  OF  THE  GRADING  IDEA 

Other  communities  than  the  foregoing  have  also  adopted 
or  are  considering  grading  systems.  The  author  has  not 
sought  to  make  a  complete  collection  of  data  on  the  subject. 
The  New  York  Milk  Committee  has  sought  to  bring  the  rec- 
ommendations of  the  Commission  on  Milk  Standards  be- 
fore many  communities,  and  reports  that  the  grading  idea 
is  making  encouraging  progress  as  shown  in  recent  milk 
regulations. 


APPENDIX  C 
THE  NORTH  SYSTEM  * 

Origin  and  Development. — The  plan  of  milk  production 
and  milk  handling  outlined  below  was  first  proposed  by 
Dr.  Charles  E.  North  in  September,  1903.  In  old  barns  on 
the  premises  of  his  certified  dairy  farm  in  New  Jersey  and  in 
old  barns  in  the  immediate  neighborhood,  he  was  successful 
during  the  years  1903  and  1904  in  producing  milk  containing 
exceedingly  small  numbers  of  bacteria  by  the  practice  of  a 
system  which  he  had  devised.  In  1908  Dr.  North  became  a 
member  of  the  New  York  Milk  Committee  and  pointed  out 
to  this  organization  the  advantages  of  this  method  of  milk 
production.  This  committee  raised  the  capital  for  the  or- 
ganization of  a  small  milk  company,  which  had  for  its  object 
the  carrying  out,  experimentally,  of  this  milk  system  on  a 
large  scale.  Because  of  its  experimental  character  the  milk 
company  took  the  title  of  The  New  York  Dairy  Demonstra- 
tion Company. 

For  two  years  past  [i.  e.,  since  1910]  the  company  has 
operated  a  milk  shipping  station  at  Homer,  N.  Y.,  and  has 
produced  milk  in  accordance  with  the  system  proposed  by 
Dr.  North  and  has  conducted  all  its  sanitary  operations 
under  his  personal  supervision.!  Beginning  with  three  dairy 

*  Reprinted,  by  permission,  from  a  description  issued  in  1912,  by 
Dr.  Charles  E.  North,  Director,  North  Public  Health  Bureau,  30 
Church  St.,  New  York  City,  with  additional  notes  from  information 
personally  communicated.  This  system  is  referred  to  at  p.  78  of  the 
present  volume. 

t  "Since  the  rather  perilous  undertaking  at  Homer,"  writes  Dr. 
North,  "the  soundness  of  the  principles  developed  there  has  been  em- 

203 


204  APPENDIX  C 

farms  and  about  600  quarts  of  milk  two  years  ago,  the  com- 
pany now  receives  milk  from  about  70  dairy  farms  and  its 
volume  of  business  has  grown  to  more  than  10,000  quarts 
daily.  It  has  found  its  largest  market  in  the  infant  milk 
depots  operated  by  the  New  York  Milk  Committee  and 
under  the  auspices  of  the  New  York  City  Department  of 
Health.  During  the  summer  of  the  present  year  there  have 
been  55  milk  depots  in  Manhattan  and  Brooklyn,  feeding 
during  the  hot  months  14,000  babies  per  day.  The  company 
has  supplied  all  of  the  milk  to  these  stores  and  this  supply 
has  been  a  large  factor  in  the  reduction  of  infant  mortality, 
which  this  summer  has  been  the  lowest  in  the  history  of  the 
city. 

Outline  of  North's  Milk  System 

1.  Object. — The  objects  of  this  system  are  the  production 
of  clean  milk  at  low  cost;  to  secure  clean  milk  from  the 
present  milk  producers  and  under  the  auspices  of  present 
milk  dealers  with  the  least  possible  disturbance  of  commer- 
cial conditions;  to  reduce  to  a  minimum  the  dairy  equipment 
and  the  sanitary  measures  used  on  dairy  farms,  retaining 
only  those  things  positively  essential  for  clean  milk  produc- 

phatically  demonstrated,  not  only  there,  but  in  numerous  other  places." 
There  are  now  (1916)  established  under  supervision  of  Dr.  North  a 
station  in  Maryland,  one  in  New  Jersey,  three  in  Pennsylvania,  two 
more  in  New  York  State,  and  one  in  Vermont.  There  are  over  one 
hundred  farms  supplying  milk  to  the  Homer  station  at  the  present 
time,  and  the  total  number  of  quarts  is  over  20,000  quarts  daily.  The 
number  of  milk  depots  in  Manhattan  and  Brooklyn  is  now  over  sixty, 
and  the  number  of  babies  feeding  from  these  is  nearly  25,000  daily. 
At  Oxford,  Pa.,  the  station  ships  milk  produced  by  135  dairymen. 
"This  place,"  says  Dr.  North,  "is  more  remarkable  than  Homer, 
because  the  majority  of  the  men  do  not  have  ice,  and  the  character  of 
their  barns  and  dairy  equipment  is  very  much  inferior  to  that  at  Homer, 
yet,  in  spite  of  these  drawbacks,  the  majority  of  them  are  producing 
milk  with  a  very  low  bacterial  count." 


APPENDIX  C  205 

tion;  the  securing  of  such  clean  milk  as  is  to  be  sold  in  a  raw 
condition;  the  cleaning  up  of  all  milk  which  is  to  be  pas- 
teurized, in  the  belief  that  all  milk  used  for  drinking  purposes 
should  be  clean  in  the  first  instance,  whether  pasteurized  or 
not. 

2.  Centralization. — The   backbone   of    the  system  is  the 
principle   of   centralization.      While   modern   business   has 
brought  about  great  organizations  in  the  selling  department 
of  the  milk  industry,  the  producing  end  of  the  line  has  been 
left  largely  to  shift  for  itself.    Milk  producers  are  permitted 
to  produce  milk  under  their  own  auspices  and  by  such  meth- 
ods as  their  ignorance  and  carelessness  may  dictate.    Many 
things  done  on  dairy  farms  can  be  done  much  better  in  a 
central  station.     Among  these  are  washing  and  sterilizing 
of  milk  cans  and  milking  pails,  bottling  of  milk  and  labora- 
tory testing  of  milk.    Sixty  per  cent  of  the  dairy  farms  have 
polluted  well  water  and  as  large  a  percentage  have  inefficient 
methods  of  washing  and  sterilizing  utensils  and  of  cooling 
milk. 

3.  Organization. — The    advocates  of   certified   milk  have 
not  considered  fully  business  organization.    Certified  dairies 
make  no  use  whatever  of  the  principle  of  centralization. 
Each  certified  dairy  conducts  its  business  in  a  most  extrava- 
gant and  inefficient  manner.     Each  certified  dairy  farm  is 
fully  equipped  to  conduct  its  business  as  a  separate  unit, 
regardless  of  the  volume  of  business. 

Instead  of  each  farm  being  a  separate  unit  with  a  small 
volume  of  business,  North's  Milk  System  makes  them  each 
a  part  of  a  large  organization  with  a  large  volume  of  busi- 
ness. .  .  .  [See  lower  diagram  of  Fig.  4,  chapter  II,  as  a 
substitute  for  the  diagram  which  we  omit  here.]  The  dairy 
farms  are  each  members  of  a  group  patronizing  the  central 
sterilizing  station.  At  the  central  plant  milk  is  received  and 
shipped.  This  station,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  is  a  large  dairy 
house  and  performs  all  of  the  functions  of  a  dairy  house  for 


206  APPENDIX  C 

each  of  the  different  farmers.  In  short,  the  dairy  farmers 
take  care  of  their  barns  and  feed  and  milk  their  cows,  while 
the  central  station  takes  care  of  the  milk  which  the  farmers 
bring  to  it.  From  the  central  station  the  milk  is  shipped  to 
the  city  in  the  usual  way. 

4.  Plant  and  Equipment. — The  plant  consists  of  a  build- 
ing such  as  is  commonly  used  for  creamery  purposes  or  for 
a  milk  shipping  station.  It  must  be  large  enough  to  accom- 
modate the  volume  of  milk  which  it  is  expected  to  collect 
from  the  territory  and  must  be  constructed  in  accordance 
with  the  well-recognized  principles  of  milk  sanitation.  It 
must  have  water-tight  floors,  abundant  lighting  and  ventila- 
tion, proper  drainage  and  water  supply,  and  must  be  con- 
structed so  that  it  can  be  easily  cleaned.  It  should  include 
separate  rooms  for  receiving  milk,  for  washing  pails  and 
cans,  for  cooling,  bottling  and  pasteurizing  milk,  for  bottle 
washing,  for  power  plant,  for  ice,  and  accommodations  for 
employees,  office,  laboratory  and  storage.  The  equipment 
should  include  tanks  for  receiving  milk,  cooling,  bottling  and 
pasteurizing  equipment,  bottle  washing  machinery,  power 
plant,  refrigerating  apparatus,  and  equipment  for  washing 
milking  pails  and  milk  cans,  a  complete  laboratory  equip- 
ment for  examining  milk  for  bacteria  and  butter  fat,  and  the 
proper  type  of  covered  milking  pails  and  milk  cans,  milk 
bottles,  etc. 

So  far  as  the  dairy  farms  are  concerned  but  little  addi- 
tional expense  is  necessary.  Of  the  seventy  farms  at  Homer, 
N.  Y.,  which  have  patronized  the  station  of  the  New  York 
Dairy  Demonstration  Company,  the  only  expense  generally 
undertaken  has  been  for  tanks  of  wood,  or  of  cement,  or  of 
galvanized  iron,  to  hold  ice-water  in  which  the  40-quart 
cans  of  night's  milk  have  been  stood  for  cooling  purposes. 
Aside  from  this,  more  frequent  whitewashing  of  barns  and 
additional  care  in  cleaning  cow  stables  have  been  the  chief 
external  evidences  of  extra  sanitary  precautions. 


APPENDIX  C  207 

5.  Sanitary  Measures.— The  following  is  a  list  of  sanitary 
measures  which  are  insisted  upon: 

1.  At  Dairy  Farms:  — 

(a)  All  milking  must  be  done  in  covered  milking  pails 
provided  by  the  central  station.     These  milking  pails 
must  have  small  mouths  with  tin  covers  and  must  be 
kept  clean  during  transportation  from  the  central  sta- 
tion to  the  farm. 

(b)  Milking  pails  and  milk  cans  must  not  be  washed 
or  sterilized  on  the  dairy  farm. 

(c)  No  strainers  must  be  used.    No  other  milk  uten- 
sils must  be  used,  excepting  those  provided  by  the  cen- 
tral station. 

(d)  All  milk  must  be  cooled  in  40  qt.  cans  by  placing 
the  cans  in  ice  water,  excepting  where  milk  is  delivered 
to  the  central  station  within  three  hours  after  milking. 

2.  At  Central  Plant: 

(a)  All  farmers'  milking  pails  are  washed,  sterilized 
and  dried. 

(b)  All  milk  cans  are  washed,  sterilized  and  dried. 

(c)  All  milk  is  cooled  and  bottled. 

(d)  Bottle  washing  and  sterilizing. 

(e)  Refrigerating  and  shipping. 

6.  Sanitary  Control. — It  is  one  thing  to  recommend  sani- 
tary  measures;   such   recommendations   have   been   made 
for  years  by  public  and  private  authorities  interested  in 
milk  reform.     It  is  quite  another  thing  to  have  sanitary 
measures  adopted  and  carried  out.    If  there  is  any  virtue  in 
the  milk  system  herein  described,  it  lies  not  so  much  in  the 
sanitary  measures  themselves,  which  are  already  well  known, 
but  it  lies  in  the  means  taken  for  securing  their  adoption. 
These  may  be  summed  up  under  the  term  of  Sanitary  Con- 
trol, and  are  as  follows: — 

(a)  Medical  inspection  of  dairy  employees  by  a  resi- 
dent physician.    The  local  country  doctor  finds  it  con- 


208  APPENDIX  C 

venient  in  his  frequent  trips  to  keep  posted  as  to  the 
health  of  the  dairy  employees  and  to  make  regular  re- 
ports to  the  central  station. 

(b)  Veterinary  inspection  of  the  dairy  cattle  by  the 
local  resident  veterinarian  with  regular  reports  of  their 
physical  condition. 

(c)  Sanitary  inspection  of  dairy  farms  by  a  resident 
sanitary  expert,  who  is  the  superintendent  of  the  central 
station.    This  superintendent  must  have  bacteriological 
training  sufficient  to  enable  him  to  carry  out  laboratory 
tests  for  bacteria,  or  to  supervise  the  same.    He  must 
also  supervise  all  sanitary  processes  in  central  plant  and 
on  dairy  farms.    His  influence  must  be  the  chief  factor 
in  maintaining  sanitary  conditions  and  in  interpreting 
laboratory  results,  so  that  milk  producers  will  have 
confidence  in  the  same. 

(d)  Regular  laboratory  tests  for  bacteria  of  each 
farmers'  milk  made  in  the  laboratory  of  the  central 
station.     This  laboratory  needs  only  simple  and  inex- 
pensive equipment  and  the  bacterial  work  consists  of 
making  bacteria  counts  by  the  plate  method.    Samples 
are  taken  of  farmer's  milk  as  this  milk  is  delivered  each 
day  to  the  station. 

(e)  Chemical  tests  for  butter  fat  and  total  solids  when 
necessary  from  samples  taken  of  milk  delivered  by  the 
farmers.     These  tests  also  to  be  made  in  the  station 
laboratory. 

(f)  A  bulletin  board  on  which  are  posted  the  results 
of  all  laboratory  tests,  so  that  they  may  be  seen  by  the 
farmers  patronizing  the  station. 

(g)  Payment  to  dairy  farmers  for  milk  based  on  its 
sanitary  character  as  shown  by  bacterial  tests  and  on 
its  richness  as  shown  by  chemical  analyses.    This  method 
of  payment  is  the  secret  of  the  Sanitary  Control.    By 
exercising  extreme  care  and  thereby  reducing  the  bac- 


APPENDIX  C  209 

terial  count  of  his  milk,  the  dairy  farmer  can  earn  more 
money  than  he  does  if  he  is  careless  and  delivers  milk 
containing  large  numbers  of  bacteria.  The  adjustment 
of  the  price  to  the  bacterial  count  on  the  one  hand,  and 
to  the  percentage  of  butter  fat  on  the  other  hand,  gives 
a  strong  stimulation  to  the  dairy  farmer  to  produce 
milk  which  is  both  clean  and  rich.  Only  small  premiums 
are  necessary  to  give  great  stimulation  in  these  two 
respects. 

(h)  Tuberculin  testing  of  dairy  cattle  is  an  entirely 
separate  problem.  It  has  become  recognized  that  raw 
milk  to  be  safe  for  drinking  purposes  must  be  obtained 
from  cattle  which  are  free  from  tuberculosis  as  deter- 
mined by  the  tuberculin  test.  The  securing  of  such 
milk  involves  principles  which  are  the  same  as  those 
above  outlined,  namely,  that  the  producer  must  be  paid 
for  the  cost.  More  than  half  of  the  milk  delivered  to 
the  central  station  at  Homer,  is  obtained  from  dairies 
having  herds  which  Have  passed  the  tuberculin  test. 
These  tests  have  been  made  as  the  direct  result  of  a 
special  premium  paid  to  the  dairy  farmers  for  milk  from 
tuberculin  tested  cows.  This  premium  has  been  paid 
in  addition  to  the  other  premiums  mentioned. 

Results 

The  use  of  this  system  on  a  large  scale  has  given  all  of  the 
results  anticipated  from  the  preliminary  experimental  work 
carried  out  by  Dr.  North  in  old  dairy  barns  in  New  Jersey. 
The  daily  bacterial  tests  of  milk  carried  out  in  the  laboratory 
of  the  central  station  of  the  New  York  Dairy  Demonstra- 
tion Company  at  Homer,  N.  Y.,  are  now  on  file,  and  show 
that,  while  there  have  been  some  irregularities,  yet  in  general 
the  milk  delivered  to  this  station  is  clean,  and  has  a  bacterial 
count  which  is  far  lower  than  can  be  obtained  by  ordinary 


210 


APPENDIX  C 


methods.  This  has  been  confirmed  by  the  tests  made  in 
other  laboratories  in  places  to  which  this  milk  has  been 
shipped. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  character  of  the  milk  delivered  to 
the  station  by  dairy  farmers,  one  of  the  daily  laboratory 
record  sheets  is  given  below: 

CREAMERIES  OF  THE 
NEW  YORK  DAIRY  DEMONSTRATION  CO. 


ANALYSIS  OF  MILK  AND  CREAM 


Date,  July  26/12. 


TUBERCULIN-TESTED    DAIRIES 


Dairy 

Name  of  owner 

Butter- 

Temp 

Bacteria 

per  c.c. 

no. 

fat 

Night 

Morning 

1 

T  Bell 

3.5 

52 

500 

2 

W.  Bell  

3 

C.  C.  Bennett        

56 

500 

400 

4 
5 
6 

F.  L.  Burnham  
R.  Butler  
C.  H.  Button  

3.4 
3.2 
3.7 

56 
46 
50 

2,500 
500 
10,000 

2,000 
1,500 
500 

7 

I.  C.  Button  

3.3 

46 

4,000 

2,000 

8 

E  Carr 

3  4 

54 

9000 

15000 

9 

H  C  Crofoot 

3  5 

52 

15000 

1  000 

10 
11 

Crof  oot  &  Cummings  .  .  . 
Ed.  Foster  

54 

1,500 

1  000 

12 

Fox  Bros  

13 

S.  Gillett  

3.5 

52 

10,000 

1  000 

14 

J.  R.  Hath  way  

3.2 

50 

1,000 

1,000 

15 
16 

N.  D.  Hitchcock  
H.  R.  Holl 

48 
52 

1,000 
1  000 

1,000 
5000 

17 

H.  H.  Jones 

3  6 

50 

1  000 

5000 

18 

R.  Jones   ... 

3  8 

54 

2000 

3000 

19 

20 

L.  E.  Klock  
W.  H.  Miller  

50 

48 

1,000 
1,000 

2,500 
1,500 

21 
22 
23 

Perry  Bros  
C.  F.  Pratt  
M.  E.  Pratt  

4.4 
3.6 
3.6 

42 
48 
48 

3,000 
2,000 
1,500 

1,500 
1,500 
2,500 

24 

F.  Rice 

3  5 

52 

1,000 

2500 

25 

Crofoot  &  Rogers 

26 

D.  Sellen 

54 

5,000 

1  000 

27 

C.  W.  Wilkins   

3  8 

46 

1,500 

2,500 

28 

E.  -M.Williams  

3.8 

50 

1,500 

1,500 

APPENDIX  C 


211 


NON-TUBERCULIN-TESTED  DAIRIES 


Dairy 

Name  of  owner 

Butter- 

Temp 

Bacteria 

per  ex. 

No. 

fat 

Night 

Morning 

29 

G.  Baldwin  

30 

D  .  Bingham  

31 

F.  Carpenter  

52 

2,000 

1,500 

32 

J  Coon 

52 

1  000 

1  000 

33 

D  Cortrite 

54 

2000 

34 

A  Crampton      .          .  . 

52 

2000 

35 

F.  Cramoton    

50 

750 

'800 

36 
37 

C.  Devoe  
A.  Edwards  

56 

30,000 

6,000 

38 

L.  Eldredge 

39 

C.  Goodale 

40 

H.  Hooker 

54 

12000 

4000 

41 

C.  Hunt  

56 

7,000 

1  000 

42 

C.  Jones  

52 

12,000 

2,000 

43 
44 

E.  Kingsbury  
C.  Knapp  

52 

1,000 

45 

H.  Larrison  

44 

3,000 

3,000 

46 

47 

D.  J.  McAuliff  
W.  Moxie 

52 
46 

6,000 
4000 

4,500 
4500 

48 

W.  Muncey 

56 

15000 

5000 

49 

E.  O'Connor  

54 

2500 

2000 

50 
51 

Mrs.  J.  O'Connor  
P.  O'Connor  

56 
54 

20,000 

14,000 

52 

P.  O'Donnell  

56 

3,000 

5,000 

53 

J  Palmer 

54 

2000 

5000 

54 

J.  Quinlan 

58 

20000 

15000 

55 

T.  Quinlan 

56 

10000 

2000 

56 

E.  Shea..    .. 

52 

3000 

10000 

57 

J.  Skinner  

58 

S.  Spencer  

54 

15000 

7500 

59 

L.  Stafford  

54 

60 

Sweeney  Bros  

56 

15,000 

2,000 

61 

C.  Sweeney  

54 

3,500 

2,500 

62 
63 
64 

M.  Sweeney  
T.  J.  Sweeney  
R.  T.  Turner  

54 
56 
54 

3,000 
6,000 
1,500 

6,000 
9,000 
4,000 

65 
66 
67 

W.  Twoomey  
J.  B.  Underwood  
J.  Weddle 

60 
50 
56 

4,500 
1,000 

5000 

68 

G.  Wilson  

46 

10000 

69 

J.  Van  Buskirk  

The  dairy  farms  on  which  this  milk  is  produced,  while 
some  of  them  are  of  superior  character,  are  in  general  the 


212  APPENDIX  C 

type  of  dairy  farms  seen  throughout  the  great  producing 
sections  of  the  milk  industry.*  The  majority  of  the  dairy 
barns  are  simple  and  inexpensive  in  construction,  and  have 
none  of  the  elaborate  and  expensive  features  of  the  certified 
dairies.  The  cleanliness  of  the  milk  produced  by  these 
dairies  was  well  illustrated  in  the  recent  milk  competition 
held  at  the  New  York  State  Fair,  at  Syracuse,  in  September, 
1912.  In  this  contest  two  of  the  Homer  farmers  obtained 
scores  for  their  milk  superior  to  the  scores  of  fifteen  certified 
dairies  entered,  and  were  only  beaten  by  the  score  of  one 
certified  competitor.  Of  the  thirty-nine  entries  in  the  com- 
petition, seven  were  milks  from  the  Homer  station,  and  these 
took  five  places  out  of  the  first  fourteen  entered. 

Relation  to  Milk  Industry 

There  are  several  branches  of  the  milk  industry  which 
have  already  shown  an  interest  in  the  adoption  of  this  system 
of  milk  production  and  handling.  Certain  modifications  are 
necessary  to  adapt  the  plan  to  the  peculiar  character  which 
the  industry  may  have  in  different  parts  of  the  country. 
Enough  work  has  been  done  to  date,  however,  to  demonstrate 
that  in  this  way  clean  milk  can  be  produced  in  large  quanti- 

*  "  The  fact  that  the  shipping  stations  and  dairy  farms  furnish  no 
external  evidence  to  the  casual  inspector  of  any  differences  from  other 
stations  and  farms  shows  that  external  appearances  give  a  very  small 
clue  to  the  real  character  of  the  product.  The  testing  of  the  product 
itself  shows  immediately  to  the  investigator  a  most  startling  difference 
between  the  milk  produced  at  these  stations  and  the  milk  produced  at 
ordinary  shipping  stations.  Furthermore,  the  most  vital  factor  at  work 
in  these  dairy  districts  is  invisible,  because  this  factor  is  summarized 
in  the  word  'influence.'  The  influence  of  the  bacterial  test  and  of  the 
system  of  payment  on  the  mind  of  the  producer  keeps  him  keyed  up  to 
a  high  pitch  of  watchfulness  and  care.  When  the  producer  sits  down 
to  milk,  his  mind  is  preoccupied  by  two  thoughts:  one,  bacteria;  and 
the  other,  dollars.  It  is  this  influence  which  achieves  the  remarkable 
results  brought  about  at  these  stations."  (Communication  from  Dr, 
North.) 


APPENDIX  C  213 

ties  by  our  present  milk  producers  at  a  comparatively  low 
cost.  The  principle  of  centralization  of  effort  through  the 
establishment  of  a  central  station  under  the  supervision  of  a 
resident  Sanitary  Superintendent,  and  the  payment  for  milk 
based  on  sanitary  quality  and  chemical  quality  as  deter- 
mined by  laboratory  tests,  are  principles  which  can  be 
adopted  in  any  locality  and  which  will  bring  sure  results.  A 
large  volume  of  business  can  be  secured  by  one  central  sta- 
tion receiving  milk  from  a  number  of  dairy  farms.  This 
makes  necessary  only  one  power  plant,  one  bottling  equip- 
ment, one  washing  and  sterilizing  equipment,  one  good  ar- 
tesian well,  and  the  salaries  of  one  superintendent  and  one 
force  of  dairy  employees  to  handle  the  milk  from  several 
scores  of  farms.  The  volume  is  such  that  the  tax  for  Sanitary 
Control  and  handling  on  each  quart  of  milk  is  small.  This 
form  of  organization  gives  efficiency  and  economy  and 
means  clean  milk  at  low  cost. 

References 

The  following  is  a  list  to  date  of  papers  by  Dr.  North  concerning 
the  above  system,  its  development  and  related  matters: — 

"A  method  of  milk  production,"  New  York  Medical  Record,  Feb. 
15,  1908. 

"Sterilizing  stations  in  dairy  districts,"  Journal  of  the  American 
Public  Health  Assn.,  Sept.,  1911. 

"The  production  of  sanitary  milk  by  our  present  milk  producers," 
59th  Annual  Report,  Mass.  State  Board  of  Agriculture,  1912. 

"The  market  value  of  cleanliness  in  milk  production,"  address 
delivered  at  36th  Annual  Convention  of  New  York  State  Dairy- 
men's Association,  1912. 

"The  dairyman  versus  the  dairy,"  American  Journal  of  Public 
Health,  June,  1915. 

"Bacterial  testing  versus  dairy  inspection,"  American  Journal 
of  Public  Health,  June,  1916. 

"A  survey  of  dairy  score  cards,"  American  Journal  of  Public 
Health,  Jan.,  1917. 


APPENDIX  D 
COSTS  AND  PRICES 

Various  investigations  have  been  made  of  economic  costs 
at  different  stages  of  the  milk  industry  from  cow  to  con- 
sumer. No  attempt  will  be  made  here  to  present  any  general 
abstract  of  these,  much  less  to  discuss  all  the  details.  Cost 
items,  furthermore,  vary  decidedly  at  different  times  and 
in  different  regions.  Hence  the  results  quoted  below  are  to 
be  taken  merely  as  illustrative.  The  figures  of  direct  sig- 
nificance in  any  locality  are  those  derived  from  local  con- 
ditions, e.  g.,  by  investigating  bodies  and  agricultural 
agencies. 

COST  OF  PRODUCTION 

While  most  of  the  controversy  relative  to  prices  has  cen- 
tered about  the  cost  of  production,  this  is  the  hardest  of  the 
various  costs  to  draw  from  practical  conditions.  Accurate 
bookkeeping  by  dairy  farmers  is  very  rare.  Figures  presented 
by  farmers  operating  under  common  conditions  show  dis- 
crepancies and  variations  which  must  produce  a  sense  of 
caution  with  regard  to  all  such  figures.  The  majority  of 
dairy  farmers,  particularly  small  farmers,  do  not  know  the 
profit  or  loss  on  their  business  of  milk  production  as  a  whole, 
much  less  on  the  outputs  of  individual  cows  in  their  herds. 
Many  such  farmers  are  producing  milk  either  at  a  loss  or 
at  little  or  no  profit,  are  not  taking  measures  to  improve 
their  conditions,  and  are  unable  to  present  convincing  figures 
when  the  question  of  milk  prices  arises. 

The  Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce,  through  its  Committee 

214 


APPENDIX  D  215 

on  Agriculture,  in  cooperation  with  various  agricultural 
agencies,  conducted  throughout  New  England,  in  1914,  a 
series  of  public  milk  hearings  which  were  attended  by  about 
2,500  farmers.*  At  these  hearings  the  farmers  were  interro- 
gated on  the  following  points: 

What  it  costs  per  year  to  keep  a  cow. 

The  average  production  per  cow  per  year. 

Value  of  the  calf. 

Value  of  manure. 

Other  problems  incident  to  the  production  of  milk. 

Their  views  as  to  what  ought  to  be  done. 

The  number  of  producers  [reports  the  committee]  who  kept  a 
strictly  accurate  record  of  all  the  [necessary]  items  was  naturally 
small.  During  the  last  five  or  ten  years,  however,  more  attention 
has  been  given  to  the  question  of  the  cost  of  keeping  a  cow,  and  the 
number  of  producers  who  have  kept  accurate  records  has  been 
rapidly  on  the  increase.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  shown  that  it 
has  been  only  within  the  last  seven  to  ten  years  that  serious  con- 
sideration has  been  given  to  an  analysis  of  the  items  of  cost  in  the 
keeping  of  a  cow. 

More  accurate  figures  were  furnished  by  the  producers  of  Ver- 
mont than  by  the  producers  of  any  other  part  of  New  England. 
It  was  shown  that  Vermont  was  the  largest  dairy  state  in  New 
England  and  supports  34  cow  test  associations. 

The  testimony  given  by  the  farmers  in  the  various  sections  of 
New  England  naturally  showed  a  wide  range  of  opinion  as  to  the 
value  of  calf  and  manure,  and  as  to  the  amounts  and  prices  charged 
for  the  individual  items.  The  peculiar  conditions  in  each  locality 
proved  to  be  a  large  determining  factor. 

Taken  over  New  England  generally,  under  varying  conditions 
and  with  varying  degrees  of  efficiency  (varying  ability)  and  varying 
accuracy  as  to  items  of  cost,  the  following  range  of  figures  represents 
fairly  the  evidence  obtained  at  the  hearings.  .  .  . 

*  This  was  part  of  a  general  investigation  of  milk  and  cream  condi- 
tions in  New  England.  See  Appendix  E. 


216 


APPENDIX  D 


TOTAL  COST  * 


Producer 
No.  1 


Producer 
No.  2 


Producer 
No.  3 


1.  Feed, — hay,  grain,  ensilage,  pas- 

ture   $49.40         $51.54         $68.00 

2.  Labor 17.72           18.15          45.00 

3.  Overhead  charges 

a.  Interest  on  money  invested 

in  cow 3.00            5.85           10.00 

b.  Insurance  on  cow 45  .37             3.00 

c.  Taxes  on  cow 2.15              .75 

d.  Depreciation  of  cow 5.00            9.75           20.00 

e.  Barn  rent 2.86             2.00             1.00 

f.  Bedding 2.00             1.00            5.00 

g.  Keep  of  bull 2.86            3.00            5.00 

h.  Incidentals, — light,  medi- 
cine, veterinarian,  heat- 
ing water  in  winter,  salt, 

etc..  1.50              .50            5.00 


$86.94         $92.91       $162.00 

*  "The  two  fundamental  figures  entering  into  the  cost  of  a  quart  of 
milk  are  the  net  cost  of  keeping  a  cow  per  year  and  the  amount  of 
milk  the  cow  produces  in  a  year."  "All  of  the  figures  can  be  obtained 
by  accounting  for  the  total  amount  of  each  one  of  the  items  for  the 
entire  herd,  then  dividing  by  the  number  of  cows,  to  obtain  the  in- 
dividual cost.  The  total  production  of  each  cow,  however,  should  be  kept 
separate,  as  should  also  her  butter-fat  test."  The  manner  of  figuring  cer- 
tain cost  items  is  explained  in  the  report  as  follows:— 

1.  Feed. — -Hay,  clover,  alfalfa,  were  figured  at  the  market  prices  that 
could  be  received  for  the  same  in  the  barn  on  the  farm;  grain  for  what 
it  costs  plus  delivery  to  the  farm;  pasture  according  to  its  value,  taken 
in  comparison  with  hay  and  grain;  ensilage  at  its  estimated  value, 
$3  to  $4  per  ton. 

2.  Labor. — -Labor  was  charged  at  the  local  market  price  for  just 
the  time  it  takes  to  care  for  the  cows. 

3d.  Depreciation  of  Cow. — Depreciation  was  reckoned  in  two  ways: 
(1)  depreciation  over  a  period  of  3,  5  or  8  years,  as  to  deaths,  injuries, 


APPENDIX  D  217 

CREDITS 

No.  1  No.  2           No.  3 

Value  of  calf $1.00  $11.00           $5.00 

Value  of  manure...                                      5.00  10.00            15.00 


$6.00          $21.00         $20.00 
NET  COST  TO  KEEP  A  cow. . .   $80.94         $71.91       $142.00 

(These  figures  show  that  it  costs  No.  3  almost  twice  No.  2  to  keep 
a  cow.) 

Figures  obtained  on  production  varied  from  3,500  to  15,000  Ibs. 
per  year. 

In  the  above  three  instances,  the  amount  of  production  per  cow 
was  as  follows: 

No.  1  No.  2  No.  3 

5,293  Ibs.  6,590  Ibs.  8,000  Ibs. 

The  cost  of  100  Ibs.  of  milk  to  each  was,  therefore, — 

$1.5291  $1.0911  $1.775 

Cost  per  quart, — 

$0.0332  $0.0237  $0.0385 

It  is,  however,  "  clear  from  the  inconsistencies  in  these 
figures,"  remarks  the  Committee,  "that  they  furnish  no  real 
basis  for  determining  the  actual  cost  of  production." 

The  several  factors  entering  into  the  foregoing  results  were 
found  to  vary  widely  in  the  different  sections  of  the  pro- 
ducing territory  according  to  the  grade  of  stock  kept,  the 
methods  of  feeding,  and  the  character  of  the  soil.  These 
factors  are  discussed  in  the  report. 

As  to  the  lack  of  accurate  knowledge  of  cost  of  production 
among  farmers,  the  Committee  has  this  to  say: — 

It  appeared  that  the  situation  was  further  complicated  by 

loss  of  udder  quarters;  (2)  depreciation  as  to  the  highest  selling  value 
of  the  cow  as  compared  to  its  final  value  for  beef. 

3d.  Barn  Rent. — Barn  rent  was  charged  on  a  basis  of  what  it  would 
cost  to  erect  a  stable  to  keep  the  number  of  cows  the  producer  maintains. 


218  APPENDIX  D 

the  fact  that  producers  generally  had  no  accurate  knowledge 
of  a  number  of  important  factors  affecting  the  cost  of  produc- 
tion on  their  farms. 

Wide  Range  in  Production. — 1.  This  was  particularly  true  in  re- 
gard to  the  number  of  pounds  of  milk  per  cow.  While  figures  ob- 
tained by  the  committee  ranged  from  3,500  Ibs.  to  15,000  Ibs.  per 
year,  it -was  clear  that  there  are  many  cows  in  New  England  pro- 
ducing under  3,500  Ibs.  per  year. 

It  is  exceedingly  doubtful  if  most  of  the  cows  in  New  England  are 
producing  much  more  than  3,500  to  4,000  Ibs.  per  year. 

Small  Percentage  of  Pure  Breds. — The  evidence  demonstrated  that 
while  in  many  towns  there  are  from  5  to  25  producers  who  have  pure 
bred  bulls  and  some  have  pure  bred  cows,  as  a  matter  of  fact  the 
majority  do  not  have  either;  and  outside  of  the  cow  test  associa- 
tions a  disappointingly  small  per  cent  weigh  or  measure,  although 
there  has  been  a  great  increase  in  weighing  in  the  last  three  or  four 
years. 

High  Percentage  Without  Records. — Probably  80%  of  the  farmers 
have  no  accurate  idea  what  their  cows  are  producing  each  year  in 
pounds  of  milk,  to  say  nothing  of  their  test  in  butter-fat. 

[The  rest  refers  to  inaccurate  charging  of  bam  rent  and  inci- 
dentals.] 

The  lack  of  any  standardized  methods  of  production  and 
of  accurate  knowledge  of  costs  is  due,  says  the  Committee, 
partly  to  temporary,  partly  to  permanent,  causes.  The 
evidence  indicated  the  following  as  the  principal  factors  in 
producing  and  continuing  this  condition : 

Commercial  Dairying  a  New  Industry. — 1.  The  selling  of  milk  and 
cream  and  the  commercial  creamery  and  cheese  factory  are  not 
old,  established  industries.  Fifty  years  ago  saw  the  first  commercial 
cheese  factory,  and  thirty-six  years  ago  the  first  commercial  cream- 
ery. General  shipping,  to  any  great  extent,  of  milk  and  cream  by 
cars  began  less  than  forty  years  ago.  Formerly,  farmers  sold  from 
their  farms,  for  their  cash  income,  corn,  oats,  wheat,  beef,  sheep, 
wool,  eggs  and  poultry,  home  made  cheese  and  butter,  wood  and 


APPENDIX  D  219 

2.  One  great  factor  in  the  situation  is  the  varying  amount  that 
the  milk  check  contributes  to  the  total  amount  of  money  received 
from  all  products  within  the  year.  Producers  are  of  two  main 
classes. 

Milk  Production  the  Main  Business. — a.  Producers  whose  milk 
and  cream  check  is  90%  of  their  total  income. 

Milk  Production  as  a  Side  Issue. — 6.  Producers  whose  milk  and 
cream  check  is  10%  to  60%  of  their  total  income;  who  are  selling 
market-garden  produce,  eggs,  poultry,  onions,  tobacco,  apples, 
potatoes,  pigs,  hogs,  young  stock,  cows,  wood  and  logs. 

The  (a)  producer  is  generally  more  concerned  about  his  dairy 
business  than  (6)  producer,  who  is  making  milk  a  side  issue  and  does 
not  pay  much  attention  to  breeding,  feeding,  amount  of  production 
as  compared  with  (a)  producer,  but  (6)  producers  are  a  big  factor 
and  produce  in  the  aggregate  much  milk  and  cream  for  the  market. 

Advent  of  Foreigners. — 3.  Many  foreigners  are  taking  up  farms 
and  producing  milk,  working  the  entire  family  on  the  farm.  Few 
of  these  figure  labor  costs,  but  their  milk  and  cream  come  into 
direct  competition  with  the  producer  who  figures  each  item. 

Causes  of  dissatisfaction  among  producers  were  brought 
out  as  follows: — 

Producers'  Solution. — Although  the  cost  of  production  varies 
greatly  and  is  not  accurately  known,  producers  are  practically  unani- 
mous that  they  are  not  receiving  enough  for  their  milk.  The  pro- 
ducer's solution  is  more  money  for  his  milk,  ranging  from  4  cents  to 
6  cents  a  quart  at  his  door. 

Test  and  Price  Suspected. — It  also  developed  that  the  producers 
suspected  certain  dealers  of  not  giving  them  an  honest  test  for  butter- 
fat.  In  some  localities  it  was  claimed  that  dealers  paid  producers 
a  higher  price  for  their  milk  or  gave  them  a  bonus  for  hauling  milk, 
so  as  to  keep  peace  in  the  locality,  and  prevent  producers  from 
getting  together. 

Deduction  for  Sour  or  Frozen  Milk. — The  dealers  in  some  instances 
charged  the  producers  for  shortage,  sour  milk  and  frozen  cream, 
for  which  the  producer  claimed  he  was  not  to  blame,  having  de- 
livered his  product  to  the  dealer  in  good  condition  and  full  measure. 


220  APPENDIX  D 

Monopolistic  Methods. — It  was  also  brought  out  that,  in  certain 
instances,  dealers  entered  creamery  districts  offering  the  producers 
higher  prices  until  such  time  as  the  dealer  could  secure  control  of 
the  local  creamery,  when  the  prices  paid  producers  would  be  re- 
duced to  make  up  for  the  higher  prices  previously  paid. 

The  above  has  been  quoted  in  order  to  indicate  some  of 
the  considerations  involved  in  detailed  investigation  of  the 
economics  of  milk  production.  There  never  was  a  time  when 
economic  pressure  required  so  much  as  now  that  the  farmer 
consider  carefully  the  actual  cost  of  milk  production.  For 
every  dairy  farmer  there  are  two  problems:  to  detect,  by 
means  of  individual  records,*  the  poorest  cows  in  his  herd 
and  dispose  of  these;  then,  by  means  of  accurate  farm  ac- 
counts, to  determine  the  costs  after  the  poorest  milkers  have 
been  eliminated.  These  costs,  as  we  have  remarked,  vary 
so  much  by  time,  locality,  and  individual  farm  conditions 
that  general  figures  are  impossible.  The  important  figure 
is  the  local  figure,  but  it  is,  as  yet,  rare  to  find  dependable 
statements  even  among  those  producers  who  claim  to  keep 
systematic  accounts.  Hence  it  is  that  a  number  of  agricul- 
tural experiment  stations  have  undertaken  to  ascertain 
accurately  the  costs  in  their  respective  localities.  These 
figures  are  most  useful  when  they  not  only  make  possible  a 
comparison  between  efficient  and  inefficient  farm  manage- 
ment but  also  distinguish  between  ideal  and  practical  condi- 
tions. It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  average  farmer 
cannot  humanly  be  expected  to  take  up  at  once  the  methods 
of  the  scientific  expert  of  the  experiment  station. 

To  quote  here  the  diverse  figures  obtained  in  different 
investigations  under  various  conditions  would  confuse  rather 
than  illuminate.  The  reader  will  be  best  enlightened  by 
consulting  the  most  recent  results  from  the  experiment  sta- 
tion in  his  own  State.  One  of  the  most  thorough  experiment 

*  Cow-test  associations  assist  the  individual  dairyman  in  doing  this, 
or  he  may  make  his  own  tests. 


APPENDIX  D  221 

station  studies  comes  from  New  York.*  This  gives  the  cost 
of  producing  milk  on  174  farms  in  one  county  and  also 
figures  taken  from  bulletins  from  certain  other  States  in 
recent  years.  The  figures  are,  for  cost  per  quart:  New 
Hampshire,  4.2  cents;  Massachusetts,  5.2;  Connecticut,  4.6; 
New  Jersey,  4.2;  Delaware  County,  New  York,  5.1  (1912) 
and  4.4  (1913).  The  writer  of  this  bulletin  recommends  that 
"  without  doubt  the  greatest  need  for  this  region  is  more 
efficient  cows,"  but  adds  that  in  his  opinion  "the  farmer 
does  not  receive  enough  for  his  milk." 

RELATIVE   COSTS   OF   LINKS   IN   THE   MILK   CHAIN 

Figures  indicate  that  when  milk  is  marketed  through  a 
middleman  the  farmer  receives,  roughly,  from  one-third  to 
one-half  the  retail  price,  the  remainder  going  for  transporta- 
tion, processes,  distribution,  overhead,  and  middleman's 
profit. 

Owing  to  wide  variations  it  is  impossible  to  give  adequate 
estimates  of  the  general  costs  of  the  different  operations  of 
the  city  milk  industry.  Some  idea  of  these  is  given  by  the 
finding  in  a  recent  investigation  in  New  England  t  that 
the  total  cost  of  collection  in  the  country,  operation  of  coun- 
try plant,  railroad  transportation,  and  operation  of  city 
plant  was  a  little  over  or  under  3c. ;  while  the  cost  of  distri- 
bution to  the  family  trade  was  2c.  to  5c. ;  to  retail  stores,  in 
cases  of  bottles,  Ic.  to2c.;  and  to  the  wholesale  trade,  J/£c.  to  Ic. 
"The  greatest  single  item  of  cost  is,  therefore,  delivery  to 
the  family  trade,  equaling  the  cost  of  collection,  country 

*  Thompson,  A.  L.,  "Cost  of  producing  milk  on  174  farms  in  Delaware 
County,  New  York,"  Cornell  University,  Agric.  Exper.  Sta.,  N.  Y. 
State  College  of  Agric.,  Bull.  364,  Oct.,  1915.  Studies  have  also  been 
made  in  other  counties  of  New  York.  For  further  data  see  bulletins 
of  the  Federal  Department  of  Agriculture  and  of  the  various  state 
departments  of  agriculture  and  agricultural  experiment  stations. 

t  Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce,  special  report,  1915. 


222  APPENDIX  D 

plant,  railroad  transportation,  and  city  plant  expense."  * 
We  have  elsewhere  (pp.  139-40)  discussed  this  important 
item  and  its  possible  reduction. 

The  cost  of  the  important  sanitary  item  of  pasteurization 
has  been  determined  for  certain  city  milk  plants  as  (aver- 
age) .313c.  per  gallon  of  milk  (range,  .229-.43G)  and  .634c. 
per  gallon  of  cream  (range,  .378-.939).f  The  "holding" 
method,  which  sanitary  efficiency  requires,  was  found  to  be 
more  economical  in  use  of  heat  than  the  " flash"  method. 
In  Chicago  the  cost  of  pasteurizing  milk  was  found  to  range 
from  one-thirtieth  of  a  cent  per  gallon  for  large  plants  to 
.85c.  per  gallon  for  one  small  plant. J 

(Some  details  and  unit  costs  of  milk  plant  operations  are 
taken  up  in  the  circular  letters  to  city  milk  dealers  pub- 
lished by  the  Dairy  Division,  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry, 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture.) 

THE   EXTRA   COST   OF   PRODUCING   CLEAN   MILK 

Little  attention  has,  until  recently,  been  paid  to  the  cost 
of  the  sanitary  factors  in  milk  production,  but,  in  view  of 
the  past  non-recognition  of  the  relative  values  of  these  fac- 
tors, the  deficiency  is  not  serious.  Whitaker,  of  the  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture,  in  1909  estimated  the 
additional  cost  of  complying  with  certain  important  items 
of  the  Department's  dairy  score  card,  and  concluded  that 
"a  reasonably  clean  milk  is  worth  2  cents  more  than  common 
slovenly  milk.  The  former  is  safer  and  therefore  cheaper  at 

*The  average  price  received  by  the  dealer  for  milk  delivered  to 
family  trade  was  9c.  per  quart  and  to  retail  stores  6c.  to  8c. 

t  Bowen,  John  T.,  "  The  cost  of  pasteurizing  milk  and  cream,"  U.  S. 
Dept.  Agric.  Bull.  85,  1914. 

|  Rpt.  of  Senate  committee  of  the  46th  General  Assembly  to  in- 
vestigate the  tuberculin  test  and  the  pasteurization  of  milk  and  its 
products  (as  quoted  by  E.  O.  Jordan,  Trans.  XV  Internal.  Congress  on 
Hyg.  and  Demography,  1912,  vol.  IV,  p.  637). 


APPENDIX  D  223 

the  increased  price."  *  With  more  efficient  methods  of  pro- 
ducing clean  milk,  based  on  the  present  better  understanding 
of  the  importance  of  certain  items,  the  cost  of  sanitation  may 
be  reduced.  Such  methods  are  now,  fortunately,  illustrated 
by  the  system  of  Dr.  North,  who  found  the  additional  cost 
necessary  to  supply  a  tuberculin-tested  milk  with  a  bac- 
teria count  under  30,000  at  time  of  delivery  to  be  one  and 
one-half  cents  per  quart  (see  pp.  81-82).  The  extra  cost  of  a 
non-tuberculin-tested  but  pasteurized  clean  milk  would  be, 
on  this  basis,  not  more  than  one  cent. 

PRICES,    WHOLESALE   AND    RETAIL  f 

Wholesale  prices  for  milk  vary  greatly  according  to  place, 
time  of  year,  and  economic  conditions.  There  are  a  num- 
ber of  different  systems  of  payment  in  use — according  to 
the  can  (of  various  content),  hundredweight,  butter-fat,  etc. 
General  figures  compiled  by  the  United  States  Department 
of  Agriculture  J  from  milk  dealers  throughout  the  country 
show  that  the  average  price  paid  to  farmers  in  1912  was 
3.57  cents  a  quart;  in  1913,  3.85;  and  in  1914,  3.80  (figures 
net  at  farmers'  shipping  stations).  The  average  varied  in 
1914  from  a  maximum  of  4.20  in  December  to  a  minimum  of 
3.26  in  June.  The  highest  prices  were  paid  in  New  England 
(average,  4.66)  and  the  lowest  in  the  Mountain  States  (3.45). 
The  highest  monthly  average  was  in  New  England  in  No- 
vember (5.05)  and  the  lowest  in  June  in  the  Middle  Atlantic 
States  (2.84).  One  dealer  in  the  latter  region  reported  that 
he  paid  only  90  cents  a  hundredweight  for  milk  in  June. 

*  Whitaker,  George  M.,  "The  extra  cost  of  producing  clean  milk," 
Bureau  of  Animal  Industry,  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agric.,  Circ.  170,  1911  (re- 
printed from  26th  Ann.  Rpt.  Bur.  An.  Ind.,  1909). 

fFor  more  recent  prices  later  publications  from  the  sources  men- 
tioned may  be  consulted.  Those  quoted  are  the  most  recent  obtain- 
able at  time  of  writing. 

|  Weekly  News  Letter  to  Crop  Correspondents,  Jan.  20  and  April  28, 
1915. 


224  APPENDIX  D 

which  would  be  only  a  little  more  than  1.9  cents  a  quart. 
The  above  figures  are  quoted  to  give  an  idea  of  the  varia- 
tions commonly  met  with. 

In  publications  of  the  Federal  Department  of  Labor  * 
may  be  found  the  average  wholesale  prices  of  milk  in  the 
New  York  market  for  a  series  of  years.  Taking  the  average 
for  1890-99,  2.55  cents  (net  price  at  shipping  stations  sub- 
ject to  a  freight  rate  to  New  York  of  26  cents  per  can  of  40 
quarts),  as  the  base  (  =  100),  the  relative  price  figures  are 
as  follows:  1900-04,  108.8;  1905-09,  124.8;  1910-14,  139.3; 
1915,  139.2.  The  actual  average  price  in  1915  was  3.51 
cents  per  quart  at  the  stations  shipping  to  New  York  and 
3.76  at  those  shipping  to  Chicago. 

The  average  retail  price  of  milk  in  certain  representative 
cities  of  the  United  States  has  been  as  follows:  1890-1900, 
6.8  cents  per  quart;  1901-05,  7.1;  1906-10,  8.1;  1911-15, 
8.9;  December,  1915,  9.0.|  The  average  retail  price  paid  to 
producers  in  the  United  States,  derived  from  figures  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture,  f  was,  for  1915,  7.1  cents  per 
quart;  for  1916  (eleven  months),  7.3.  Comparisons  showing 
the  smaller  increase  in  the  retail  price  of  milk  as  compared 
with  certain  other  important  food  products  have  been  given 
in  Chapter  IV. 

*  Bull.  81,  Bureau  of  Labor;  Bull.  181,  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics; 
Bull.  200,  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  July,  1916. 
t  Bull.  197,  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  June,  1916. 
J  Information  by  letter. 


APPENDIX  E 
LOCAL  EXPERIENCES  AND  INVESTIGATIONS 

NEW  ENGLAND 

The  milk  question  in  all  its  bearings  has  for  years  been  a 
subject  of  difficulty  and  controversy  in  New  England.  This 
region,  in  which  large  industrial  communities  have  grown 
up,  drawing  their  milk  supplies  from  ever  widening  circles, 
shows  doubtless  the  most  acute  milk  situation  to  be  found 
anywhere  in  the  United  States,  and  one  never  so  acute  as  at 
the  present  time. 

In  Massachusetts  the  population  is  increasing  at  the  rate 
of  twenty  per  cent  per  decade,  yet  the  number  of  milch  cows 
has  fallen  off  in  the  past  ten  years  by  eighteen  per  cent. 
There  has  also  been  a  decrease  in  milch  cows  in  neighboring 
States  (see  Appendix  A).  Concerning  this  phenomenon  the 
Chief  of  the  Massachusetts  Dairy  Bureau  has  had  the  fol- 
lowing to  say: — 

The  elimination  of  unprofitable  dairy  cows  and  the  dropping  out 
of  unsuccessful  dairymen,  for  whatever  cause,  as  well  as  the  inevit- 
able reduction  of  the  milk  supply  to  such  a  point  as  will  bring  the 
price  of  milk  to  a  profitable  figures,  are  but  the  results  of  an  in- 
adequate price  for  milk. 

The  decline  in  the  number  of  cows  is  greatest  in  those  localities 
where  milk  is  shipped  by  rail  to  large  cities  for  consumption.  It 
is,  therefore,  perfectly  natural  that  nearby  localities  are  first  to  be 
affected.  This  decline,  however,  does  not  stop,  but  goes  on  and  on 
no  matter  how  far  the  area  of  milk  supply  is  extended,  and  the  near 
future  will  undoubtedly  see  further  decline,  especially  in  northern 
New  England  and  even  in  Canada  until  milk  producers  come  to  a 
realizing  sense  of  the  great  fundamental  fact  that  milk  has  been  too 

225 


226  APPENDIX  E 

long  sold  below  cost  price.  Milk  production  will  decrease  until  the 
great  law  of  supply  and  demand  does  its  share  of  the  work  in  rectify- 
ing the  situation.  The  remedy,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  is  the 
education  of  the  consumer  to  the  food  value  of  milk  as  compared 
with  other  animal  foods,  together  with  the  education  of  all  to  the 
exact  knowledge  of  the  producer's  position.  Greater  economy  in 
milk  production  must  be  practiced.  Better  cows,  more  scientific 
feeding  and  improved  business  methods  are  urged  of  the  farmer. 
Economy  in  handling,  especially  in  the  method  of  distribution,  is 
urged  of  the  distributer,  and  a  sense  of  justice  and  willingness  to 
pay  a  fair  price  for  milk  is  urged  of  the  consumer.* 

It  may  be  added  that  there  is  a  feeling  among  Massa- 
chusetts producers  that  they  have  been  under  stricter  super- 
vision, entailing  greater  trouble  and  expense,  than  those 
sending  milk  from  outside  of  the  State,  without  corre- 
spondingly greater  compensation;  and  this  feeling  has  further 
complicated  the  situation. 

The  New  England  milk  problem,  centering  about  the  city 
of  Boston,  has  been  subjected  in  past  years  to  a  number  of 
general  or  limited  investigations,  by  the  Federal  Dairy  Divi- 
sion and  by  other  investigators,  mainly  from  the  sanitary 
side.  In  1914  the  whole  matter  was  taken  up  afresh  by  the 
Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce,  which,  through  its  Com- 
mittee on  Agriculture,  made  a  thorough  investigation  of  all 
phases  with  special  reference  to  economic  and  business  con- 
ditions. The  reasons  and  scope  of  this  inquiry  were  as 
follows: — 

It  has  been  apparent  for  some  time  that  the  production  and  dis- 
tribution of  milk  in  the  New  England  States  is  not  on  a  sound 
economic  basis,  and  that  there  is  something  radically  wrong  with 
the  way  in  which  this  important  industry  is  now  being  conducted. 
It  is  obvious  that  the  opportunities  in  the  industry  are  far  from 
being  fully  realized. 

*  62d  Ann.  Rpt.  Sec'y  Mass.  State  Board  of  Agriculture,  for  1914, 
p.  424. 


APPENDIX  E  227 

Milk  has  always  been  a  staple  article  of  consumption  with  all 
classes,  and  is  among  the  best  and  cheapest  foods  on  the  market. 
The  large  cities  of  southern  New  England  would  naturally  look  to 
the  adjoining  territory  for  their  supply.  This  territory  (northern 
and  central  New  England)  is  well  able  to  support  a  flourishing  dairy 
industry — and  dairying  should  naturally  be  the  largest  single 
branch  of  New  England  agriculture,  our  greatest  single  industry. 

Generally  speaking  the  per  capita  consumption  of  milk  in  the 
United  States  has  been  steadily  increasing;  but  in  certain  districts 
of  New  England  the  per  capita  consumption  has  been  decreasing 
for  the  past  ten  years,  and  the  amount  required  has  been  drawn 
from  a  larger  and  larger  territory,  and  from  districts  more  and  more 
remote. 

In  short,  despite  the  increase  in  our  urban  population,  the  output 
of  the  principal  agricultural  industry  in  the  immediate  adjoining 
territory  has  declined.  Country  districts,  which  ought  to  be  flour- 
ishing, are  at  a  standstill.  No  one  has  appeared  to  understand  the 
cause  of  the  difficulty,  or  to  have  comprehensive  ideas  for  its  solu- 
tion. 

The  Committee  on  Agriculture  of  the  Boston  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, in  view  of  this  situation  and  at  the  request  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Milk  Producers  Association  (an  organization  of  about  2,000 
New  England  farmers),  has  made  this  investigation  in  the  hope  of 
being  able  to  throw  a  strong  light  upon  the  fundamental  causes  of 
the  difficulty  and  of  being  able  to  work  out  suggestions  for  its  solu- 
tion. This  investigation  has  been  conducted  in  cooperation  with 
the  agricultural  agencies  of  the  various  New  England  States.  The 
Federal  Department  of  Agriculture  also  has  rendered  assistance  in 
the  transportation  features. 

It  appeared  necessary,  first,  to  obtain  exact  facts  as  to  conditions 
now  existing  in  New  England  regarding  production,  transportation, 
inspection,  grading  and  distribution;  second,  to  make  a  thorough 
analysis  of  this  information,  studying  the  methods  adopted  by  rail- 
roads and  cities  elsewhere;  third,  to  make,  if  possible,  recommenda- 
tions helpful  in  putting  the  industry  on  a  sound  basis. 

The  report  has  two  divisions.  The  first  outlines  the  present 
conditions  in  each  phase  of  the  industry,  undertaking  to  give  the 
reader  a  mental  picture  of  how  milk  and  cream  are  produced, 


228  APPENDIX  E 

transported,  processed,  inspected,  graded  and  distributed,  and 
giving  the  costs  and  principal  problems  connected  therewith:  the 
second  contains  comments  and  suggested  recommendations. 

The  resultant  report  is  an  exceedingly  valuable  document 
to  all  concerned  in  readjustment  of  the  milk  industry,  being 
packed  with  data  which  are  not  only  of  local  application  but 
are  of  comparative  and  suggestive  importance  for  other 
regions  where  similar  investigation  may  be  needed.  It  may 
be  noted  in  passing  that  one  of  the  principal  points  brought 
out  was  the  lack  of  standardization  and  grading  of  milk 
which  has  been  the  main  theme  of  the  present  volume.  To 
attempt  to  quote  or  abstract  from  this  report  further  than 
we  have  done  elsewhere  would  hardly  do  it  justice;  the  in- 
quiring reader  is  therefore  referred  to  the  original  publica- 
tion.* 

The  subject  of  railroad  rates  for  milk  and  systems  of 
shipping,  having  reached  an  acute  stage,  was  taken  up  by 
the  United  States  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  in  a 
long  series  of  hearings  held  in  Boston  in  February  and 
March,  1916.  t 

The  chief  milk  measure  before  the  Massachusetts  Legisla- 
ture in  1916  was  a  bill  prepared  by  the  State  Department  of 
Health,  on  the  basis  of  extensive  investigation,  providing 
for  the  formulation  by  the  Health  Commissioner  of  regula- 
tions involving  the  grading  of  milk  throughout  the  State 
by  a  plan  applying  progressively  in  communities  of  different 
sizes  over  a  period  of  several  years.  The  agricultural  in- 
terests, however,  preferred  no  general  legislation,  and  had 
their  way,  the  bill  finally  being  defeated. 

*  "Investigation  and  analysis  of  the  production,  transportation,  in- 
spection, and  distribution  of  milk  and  cream  in  New  England,"  Boston 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  July,  1915.  The  Chamber  has  also  issued  a 
pamphlet  showing  in  detail  how  grading  may  be  carried  into  effect. 

t  "The  New  England  milk  case,"  Supt.  of  Documents,  Washington, 
D.  C.  (5  cts.). 


APPENDIX  E  229 

The  question  of  milk  prices  in  New  England  reached  a 
crisis  in  the  fall  of  1916,  as  the  result  of  demands  by  or- 
ganized producers  for  a  higher  price  from  the  dealers.  As  a 
result  of  the  controversy,  which  centered  in  the  Boston 
market,  where  an  effort  was  made  to  withhold  milk,  some 
price  increases  were  obtained.  At  the  same  time  the  retail 
price  was  raised  by  Boston  dealers  to  ten  cents.  More  re- 
cently (1917)  the  producers  have  obtained  a  further  increase 
in  summer  wholesale  price,  and  the  retail  price  of  staple 
market  milk  has  gone  to  eleven  cents.  Costs  of  feed  and  farm 
labor  are  reported  to  have  risen  greatly  in  the  last  year; 
hence  the  farmers'  demand  for  the  higher  price.  There  is 
evidence  of  increasingly  effective  organization  among  the 
farmers  of  this  region. 

Very  full  data  regarding  the  milk  situation  in  Massachu- 
setts, embracing  conditions  in  the  milk-producing  districts 
of  New  England,  with  discussions  bearing  on  the  general 
milk  problem,  have  recently  been  published  by  a  special 
board  of  the  State  Department  of  Health.* 

NEW  YORK  STATE 

Reference  has  been  made,  elsewhere  in  this  volume,  to 
the  system  of  sanitary  grading  prescribed  for  the  towns  and 
cities  of  New  York  State  (other  than  New  York  City)  by 
the  State  Sanitary  Code.  This,  so  far  as  the  writer  knows, 
is  the  only  state  system  that  has  thus  far  been  established, 
and  its  working  is  being  watched  with  interest.  The  New 
York  City  system  has  also  been  referred  to.  (See  Appen- 
dix B.) 

The  aim  of  a  statewide  system  of  grading  is  to  secure  a 
desirable  uniformity  of  standards  and  to  induce  communi- 
ties which  would  otherwise  remain  apathetic  to  strengthen 

*  Report  of  the  Special  Milk  Board  of  the  Massachusetts  State  De- 
partment of  Health,  1916. 


230  APPENDIX  E 

their  milk  supervision.  Confusion  and  demoralization  in 
the  milk  trade  through  the  adoption  of  differing  local  stand- 
ards are  thus  avoided.  As  long,  however,  as  local  organiza- 
tion and  resources,  particularly  as  to  laboratory  facilities, 
remain  deficient,  effective  grading  throughout  a  State  can- 
not become  an  accomplished  fact.  The  logical  function  of 
state  authorities  is  to  supervise  adequately  the  supply  of 
each  town  until  it  reaches  the  town  confines,  but  in  any  case 
final  tests  and  the  enforcement  of  grading  are  matters  of 
local  control. 

The  economic  difficulty  has  recently  become  acute  in 
New  York  State.  The  Legislature  of  1916  authorized  a 
special  committee  to  investigate  the  market  conditions  of 
agricultural  products  in  general,  including  milk  as  a  subject 
of  chief  importance.  Senator  Charles  O.  Wicks,  introducing 
the  resolution,  is  reported  to  have  spoken  as  follows : — 

"The  farmers,"  he  said,  "are  getting  less  for  their  milk  than  they 
were  getting  two  years  ago,  despite  the  fact  that  the  price  of  feed 
and  the  wages  of  their  help  have  soared  in  the  meantime.  The 
farmers  are  compelled  to  sell  their  milk  for  less  than  three  and  one- 
half  cents  a  quart.  I  do  not  know  whether  it  is  due  to  a  combine  of 
the  big  middlemen  or  not,  but  I  do  know  that  the  dairy  farmers 
are  suffering  severely  and  that  many  of  them  are  being  forced  out 
of  business. 

"A  situation  might  thus  readily  arise  which  would  be  very  serious 
to  the  consumers  in  such  large  communities  as  New  York  City. 
Something  should  be  done  to  remedy  the  situation."  * 

The  above-mentioned  committee  is  interested  in  markets, 
prices,  and  methods  of  marketing,  including  economic  ques- 
tions connected  with  the  milk  industry. 

The  price  controversy  between  producers  and  dealers  in 
the  New  York  market  came  to  an  acute  issue  in  the  fall  of 
1916.  The  organized  producers  withheld  large  quantities 

*  New  York  Times,  April  4,  1916. 


APPENDIX  E  231 

of  milk,  cutting  down  the  city's  supply  at  one  time  to  little 
more  than  a  third  of  normal,  and  threatened  to  attempt  to 
establish  a  cooperative  distribution  system  through  the 
medium  of  the  State  Commissioner  of  Foods  and  Markets. 
The  boycott  resulted  in  victory  for  the  farmers,  the  dealers 
granting  the  cent-a-quart  increase  demanded. 

NEW  JERSEY 

Under  a  law  reorganizing  the  State  Department  of  Health, 
provision  has  been  made  for  the  adoption  of  a  state  sanitary 
code,  which,  when  drawn,  will  include  milk  regulations. 
These,  at  present  writing,  have  not  yet  been  published. 

RHODE  ISLAND 

In  1915  a  special  commission  was  authorized  by  the  Legis- 
lature to  inquire  into  the  agricultural  resources  of  the  State. 
A  large  share  of  the  attention  of  this  Commission  was  de- 
voted to  the  milk  and  dairy  problem.  In  a  recently  pub- 
lished preliminary  report  *  the  Commission  says: — 

The  situation  in  respect  to  this  industry  is  serious  .  .  .  there  is 
general  dissatisfaction,  (1)  on  the  part  of  the  producer  because  the 
dairy  business  is  on  the  whole  unprofitable,  and  (2)  on  the  part  of 
the  consumer  because  of  the  poor  quality  of  milk  furnished  by  the 
producer.  From  the  standpoint  of  health  also  there  is  profound 
dissatisfaction. 

The  Commission  recommends  measures  for  excluding 
tuberculous  cattle,  for  improvement  of  stock,  and  for  in- 
struction of  dairymen.  Attention  is  called  to  the  decrease 
in  milch  cows  in  the  State  and  the  tendency  to  go  out  of  the 
State  for  milk. 

*  Preliminary  Report  of  the  Commission  of  Inquiry  into  the  Agri- 
cultural Resources  of  the  State,  Providence,  1916. 


232  APPENDIX  E 

There  are  many  reasons  for  this  decrease  in  the  number  of  cattle, 
but  they  may  all  be  summed  up  in  the  statement  that  the  keeping 
of  cattle  has  ceased  to  be  profitable  under  present  conditions.  The 
demand  from  the  cities  for  improvement  in  the  quality  of  milk  has 
not  been  met,  simply  because  the  average  farmer  who  sells  his 
milk  to  a  middleman  cannot  make  dairying  pay.  .  .  .  To-day  the 
whole  subject  is  misunderstood  both  by  producers  and  consumers. 
Whether  rightly  or  wrongly,  consumers  believe  that  milk  should 
be  delivered  to  them  at  a  price  not  more  than  nine  or  ten  cents  a 
quart.  Any  attempt  to  raise  that  price  will  only  result  in  a  lessened 
consumption,  an  end  not  to  be  desired  if  we  consider  the  food  values 
of  milk  and  the  health  of  children. 

Believing  that  "the  trouble  arises  chiefly  from  the  middle- 
man, who  purchases  at  low  rates  from  the  producer  milk 
both  good  and  bad,  mixes  these,  averaging  their  butter-fat 
contents,  and  then  sells  a  low-grade  milk  at  a  large  profit," 
the  Commission  makes  the  following  radical  recommenda- 
tion : — 

In  view  of  these  facts  your  Commission  therefore  recommends 
that  cities  or  urban  centers  having  a  population  of  over  5,000  be 
required  to  establish  municipally  owned  central  milk  depots,  con- 
venient to  transportation  centers,  and  to  allow  no  milk  whatsoever 
to  be  sold  within  their  limits  before  it  has  passed  through  these 
depots  for  standardization  and  pasteurization,  under  the  supervision 
of  their  Boards  of  Health,  in  accordance  with  rules  approved  by  the 
State  Board  of  Health. 

This  recommendation  does  not  apply  to  the  smaller  towns,  whose 
milk  supply  is  as  poor,  if  not  poorer,  than  the  supply  in  cities.  Some 
arrangement,  however,  can  easily  be  made,  either  to  have  the  milk 
of  the  towns  standardized  at  the  nearest  city  depot  or  to  let  certain 
towns,  in  combination  or  separately,  set  up  depots  of  their  own. 

The  Commission  "  believes  that  no  solution  of  the  milk 
problem  is  worth  while  unless  it  insists  on  a  thorough  stand- 
ardization, so  that  each  consumer  may  know  exactly  what  he 
pays  for  in  purchasing  milk/'  and  recommends  the  classifica- 


APPENDIX  E  233 

tion  of  milk  in  four  market  grades,  all  of  which,  except  the 
highest,  must  be  pasteurized  at  the  central  milk  depot.  The 
lowest  of  these  graces  is  ultimately  to  be  dropped.  The 
question  of  distribution  is  discussed  and  it  is  proposed  that 
the  privilege  of  delivery  by  districts  be  sold  or  auctioned  in 
each  municipality. 

Whether  this  plan  by  which  the  community  supersedes 
the  individual  in  the  sale  of  milk  will  be  put  into  operation 
and  whether  it  can  be  justified  as  a  legitimate  exercise  of  the 
police  powers  of  the  State  remains  to  be  seen.  It  is  perhaps 
most  interesting  as  a  commentary  on  conditions  which  have 
been  thought  to  call  for  so  drastic  a  remedy.* 

MILWAUKEE 

The  following  interesting  account  of  recent  developments 
in  the  milk  situation  in  Milwaukee  has  been  received  from 
Mr.  F.  W.  Luening,  Deputy  Commissioner  of  Health,  under 
date  of  January  28,  1916:  — f 

Our  local  problems  here  have  most  recently  revolved  about  the 
question  of  the  tuberculin  test  and  pasteurization.  There  are 
incidentally,  questions  concerning  the  merits  of  clarification,  and 
to  us  the  big  question  of  public  understanding  and  cooperation. 

Milwaukee  some  years  ago  enacted  an  ordinance  requiring  that 
all  milk  sold  in  the  city  come  from  tuberculin-tested  herds.  An 
injunction  was  promptly  served,  prohibiting  the  city  from  enforcing 
this  ordinance.  An  organization  of  milk  shippers  then  took  the 
matter  into  the  courts  and  delayed  enforcement  for  a  number  of 
years.  The  case  was  carried  from  a  first  hearing  in  the  presence 
of  a  court  commissioner  to  the  supreme  court  of  the  United  States. 
In  every  instance  the  city  had  the  better  of  the  argument.  When 

*  Cf .  the  discussion  on  municipalization,  Chapter  V. 

t  In  the  course  of  his  study  the  author  has  had  correspondence  with 
a  number  of  officials  in  different  towns  and  cities.  Some  of  their  remarks 
by  courtesy  of  the  writers,  are  reproduced  here  as  furnishing  useful 
first-hand  information. 


234  APPENDIX  E 

the  final  decision  was  rendered  by  the  supreme  court  of  the  United 
States,  an  attempt  to  enforce  the  provisions  of  the  ordinance  was 
made.  There  was  an  immediate  strike  of  milk  shippers.  They 
refused  to  ship  milk  to  Milwaukee,  and  succeeded  in  curtailing  the 
supply  appreciably.  The  larger  dairy  companies,  however,  would 
readily  have  won  this  battle  had  they  actually  been  concerned  in 
it.  It  became  evident  that  they  were  not  directly  concerned  nor 
that  they  even  desired  that  the  ordinance  be  enforced.  While  they 
managed  to  procure  milk,  they  took  a  stand  against  the  Health 
Department,  and  with  the  shippers,  succeeded  in  at  least  rendering 
negative  most  of  the  favorable  public  opinion,  and  took  the  matter 
into  the  Common  Council,  where  a  bitter  fight  was  waged  on  the 
floor,  which  finally  was  won  by  the  Health  Department. 

The  dealers  then  protested  that  it  was  impossible  to  continue  the 
milk  business  under  existing  conditions — that  is,  with  the  curtailed 
supply  and  the  opposition  of  the  shippers. 

Ultimately,  the  department  was  compelled  to  procure  temporary 
shippers  without  the  enforcement  of  the  ordinance. 

The  fight  was  then  taken  to  the  floor  of  the  state  legislature, 
which  met  in  the  fall,  and  there  a  second  long  battle  was  waged, 
which  was  again  won  by  the  Health  Department. 

It  has  not  yet  been  possible  to  fully  enforce  the  ordinance,  how- 
ever, despite  these  victories,  perhaps  as  largely  because  the  milk 
dealer  does  not  want  a  restricted  source  of  supply  as  because  the 
shipper  does  not  want  to  test  his  cattle.  By  cooperative  work, 
however,  and  educational  effort,  the  shipper  is  gradually  coming  to 
see  the  merits  of  the  test  and  is  no  longer  the  most  active  opponent. 
The  dealer,  on  the  other  hand,  appears  to  see  a  threat  to  his  source 
of  supply  in  that  the  test  will  restrict  the  number  of  shippers  and 
thus  permit  a  comparatively  compact  body  to  dictate  prices. 

The  question  of  pasteurization  was  incidentally  brought  up  in 
connection  with  the  test  when  the  dealers  contended  that  their 
pasteurizers  were  all-sufficient  to  take  care  of  any  contamination 
by  tuberculosis  that  might  exist  in  the  milk,  and  by  suggesting 
that  a  pasteurization  ordinance  be  passed.  Eighty-five  per  cent 
of  Milwaukee's  milk  supply  already  is  pasteurized,  and,  although 
such  an  ordinance  is  in  contemplation,  it  has  not  yet  been  intro- 
duced. 


APPENDIX  E  235 

The  broader  question  of  public  cooperation  was  also  brought 
forcibly  before  us  during  the  recent  years  and  in  consequence  of  the 
efforts  to  enforce  the  tuberculin-test  ordinance.  The  public  is 
negative  in  the  matter  of  milk  purchases.  Milk  is  milk  to  the  aver- 
age consumer.  A  white  fluid  in  a  bottle  with  a  cream  line,  is  about 
all  he  seems  to  be  interested  in.  In  fact,  users  of  milk  here,  have 
told  us  that  they  could  see  no  difference  between  the  milk  from  a 
tuberculin  tested  herd  and  the  milk  from  an  untested  herd.  They 
have  explained  that  the  cream  line  was  no  lower,  that  the  milk 
tasted  no  differently  and  that  they  could  see  no  excuse  for  paying  a 
higher  price  for  such  a  milk.  This  attitude,  more  or  less  exag- 
gerated, was  apparent  and  general,  and,  of  course,  makes  for  the 
defeat  of  a  provision  like  that  requiring  the  test.  The  dealer  can, 
quite  safely,  oppose  any  requirement  until  the  public  demands  it. 

So  that  the  milk  question,  like  most  other  public  health  ques- 
tions, is  compelling  the  Health  Department  to  become  an  educa- 
tional institution  primarily,  and  is  relegating  the  police  powers  to  a 
secondary  place.* 

The  producer  also  must  be  made  to  follow  the  public  understand- 
ing of  the  milk  question.  So  long  as  milk  is  accepted  by  the  public, 
either  in  urban  or  rural  communities,  without  question  concerning 
its  source,  filthy  milk  will  be  produced,  and  the  product  of  the  cow 
will  be  contaminated  until  it  is  hardly  fit  for  food.  So  long  as  the 
public  is  willing  to  rely  upon  strainers,  clarifiers  and  other  artificial 
means  of  removing  dirt,  the  producer  will  not  concern  himself 
greatly  about  keeping  dirt  out  of  the  milk. 

The  commercial  aspects,  of  course,  play  a  further  part,  as  is 
indicated  in  the  attitude  of  the  dealer  toward  the  tuberculin  test. 
The  milk  dealer  will  always  want  as  wide  a  market  as  he  can  get, 
as  many  shippers  as  he  can  get  and  as  many  other  sources  of  supply, 
including  creameries,  cheese  factories  and  other  concentration 
centers.  He  will  always,  directly  or  indirectly,  oppose  restrictions 
by  authorities  or  the  public,  that  will  curtail  his  supply.  It  is  not 
to  his  advantage  to  deal  with  a  body  of  shippers  who  have  complied 

*  This  can  rightly  be  taken  to  mean  only  that  in  practice  a  great 
part  of  the  work  of  effective  health  departments  is  educative  or  suasive 
rather  than  compulsive.  Authority  still  remains,  of  course,  the  basis 
of  administration. — J.  S.  M. 


236  APPENDIX  E 

with  certain  ordinance  provisions  and  therefore  are  exclusively  in  a 
position  to  supply  a  particular  milk.  This  would  place  these  ship- 
pers in  the  position  of  dictators,  whereas,  under  existing  conditions, 
the  dealer  is  the  dictator.  It  is  not  within  the  plan  of  the  distributer 
to  permit  a  concentration  of  the  present  scattered  sources  of  supply 
that  are  working  without  coordination,  largely  without  coopera- 
tion, and  almost  entirely  without  organization.  Whether,  from  a 
public  viewpoint,  anything  would  be  gained  by  placing  the  power 
in  the  hands  of  the  shipper  rather  than  in  the  hands  of  the  dis- 
tributer, is  questionable,  of  course.  That  the  producer  is  capable  of 
assuming  an  arbitrary  and  arrogant  stand,  is  evidenced  by  the  milk 
strikes  conducted  by  milk  shippers  on  two  occasions.  While  it  is 
true  that  these  particular  strikes  could  readily  have  been  broken  by 
the  dealers,  the  public  and  the  authorities  working  together,  it  is 
questionable  whether  such  strikes  might  not  be  used  to  the  decided 
disadvantage  of  the  consumer,  were  the  producers  well  organized. 

BROCKTON,  MASS. 

The  city  of  Brockton  has  for  some  years  been  conspicuous 
for  success  in  bringing  about  sanitary  improvement  of  milk 
supplies  through  regulation  based  upon  bacteriological  tests. 
The  city  maintains  a  general  municipal  laboratory,  the 
Director  of  which,  Mr.  George  E.  Boiling,  also  Inspector  of 
Milk,  several  years  ago  wrote  as  follows  concerning  appear- 
ance vs.  results  in  dairies: — 

Our  experience  in  the  supervision  of  our  local  milk  supply  has 
shown  us  that  the  appearance  presented  by  a  dairy  or  the  score  it 
obtained  was  not  a  criterion  of  the  cleanliness  of  its  product,  and 
that  intelligent  personal  supervision  by  the  owner  of  the  detailed 
work  in  a  dairy  essential  to  the  production  of  clean  milk  went 
further  toward  securing  such  a  product  than  fancy  equipment 
turned  over  to  hired  help.  Our  motto  became  "The  proof  of  the 
pudding  is  in  the  eating,"  and  when  milk  taken  from  the  wagons 
of  the  dealers  when  ready  for  final  delivery  to  the  consumer  showed 
a  clean  product,  we  did  not  insist  on  more  or  less  costly  changes 
$t  the  dairy  that  regularly  marketed  such  milk. 


APPENDIX  E  237 

We  became  convinced,  also,  that  there  was  an  economic  side  to 
the  milk  question  and  that  it  vies  with  the  health  aspect  in  impor- 
tance, for,  as  runs  the  famous  receipt  for  rabbit  pie — "  first  catch 
your  hare" — so  someone  must  first  produce  the  milk,  and  if  it  is 
not  made  a  profitable  undertaking  for  someone,  who  will  produce 
it  and  then  where  does  the  health  question  enter  in? 

Our  final  conclusion  was  that  the  proper  way  to  inspect  milk  was 
by  the  laboratory  and  if  anything  went  wrong  an  inspection  of  the 
dairy  became  necessary,  and  that  to  rule  indiscriminately  that 
each  dairy  must  be  equipped  thusly  and  score  a  certain  percentage 
was  unnecessary.* 

A  recent  report  of  the  Brockton  Health  Department 
states: — 

As  we  have  reiterated  from  year  to  year,  and  as  further  demon- 
strated by  our  work  in  1914,  the  high  scoring  dairy  does  not  neces- 
sarily produce  the  cleanest  and  safest  milk. 

Dairymen  supplying  Brockton  have  succeeded  in  produc- 
ing unusually  low-bacteria-count  milk  in  stables  of  inex- 
pensive construction  (see  Plate  3,  p.  83)  and  the  names  of 
the  most  meritorious  are  published  in  the  annual  reports  of 
the  Health  Department.  The  following  statement,  in  answer 
to  a  short  list  of  questions,  is  furnished  by  Mr.  Boiling: — 

1.  Sanitary  milk  inspection  for  Brockton  began  in  1906;  that 
year  the  local  board  made  rules  and  regulations  to  supervise  the 
production,  care,  and  sale  of  milk.  Among  the  regulations  was  one 
limiting  the  number  of  bacteria  in  milk  intended  for  sale  to  500,000 
per  c.c.  Collection  of  samples  from  wagons  and  stores  to  deter- 
mine their  relation  to  the  bacterial  standard  began  immediately 
upon  adopting  the  rule  in  1906.  The  first  year  about  600  samples 
were  examined  by  the  plate  method  of  counting  and  in  the  last  ten 
years  12,300  have  been  so  examined.  Persistent  violations  of  this 
rule  have  been  prosecuted,  about  a  dozen  altogether  in  the  ten 
years.  Only  such  cases  have  been  prosecuted,  however,  as  proved 

*  "The  development  of  a  municipal  laboratory,"  American  Journal 
of  Public  Health,  June,  1912. 


238  APPENDIX  E 

to  be  unamenable  to  advice  and  instruction  how  to  produce  cleaner 
milk.  Since  1909  the  Statute  standards  of  solids  and  fats  have  been 
enforced,  about  1,500  to  2,000  chemical  examinations  being  made 
yearly. 

2.  We  have  no  "milk  problem"  here  that  I  recognize  as  such. 
The  one  matter  in  which  I  would  like  to  see  a  change  is  for  the 
public  to  be  more  willing  to  pay  a  higher  price  for  the  cleaner  milk. 
This  would  be  automatically  brought  into  effect  by  sanitary  grading. 

3.  From  the  standpoint  of  a  health  official  I  would  say  the  most 
important  single  regulation  is  the  one  limiting  the  bacterial  content 
of  milk  intended  for  sale. 

4.  As  regards  pasteurization  I  believe  that  the  New  York  system 
of  grading  as  well  as  the  scheme  just  proposed  by  the  Massachusetts 
State  Health  Department  will  both  serve  admirably  to  induce  quite 
general  pasteurization.    I  believe  it  should  be  generally  required 
and  that  we  can  hardly  err  in  so  doing. 

The  retail  price  of  milk  in  Brockton  is  nine  cents,  which 
implies  that  sanitary  improvements  have  been  brought  about 
without  excessive  increment  of  cost. 

For  a  city  with  a  raw  milk  supply,  Brockton  has  been 
unusually  free  from  traceable  outbreaks  of  milk-borne  dis- 
ease. In  1915,  however,  two  such  occurred,  involving 
(though  promptly  checked)  some  48  cases;  * — merely  an- 
other demonstration  of  the  fact  that  city  milk  supplies, 
however  clean  in  the  ordinary  sense,  may  carry  infection 
unless  efficiently  pasteurized. 

PALO  ALTO,  CAL. 

As  an  illustration  of  experience  in  a  small  community, 
Palo  Alto,  Cal.  (population  ca.  6,000),  may  be  taken.  Mr. 
Harold  F.  Gray,  the  former  Health  Officer,  f  has  kindly  fur- 
nished some  particulars.  This  community  relies  upon  tuber- 

*  Personal  communication,  Mr.  Boiling, 
t  Now  Asst.  Health  Officer,  San  Jose,  Cal. 


APPENDIX  E  239 

culin  tested  clean  raw  milk  for  its  supply.    Concerning  the 
introduction  of  the  tuberculin  test  Mr.  Gray  writes: — 

We  had  practically  no  real  difficulty.  The  campaign  for  tuber- 
culin-testing, with  pasteurization  as  an  alternative,  was  gradual, 
and  began  shortly  after  the  very  severe  milk-borne  epidemic  of 
typhoid  fever  in  1903.  At  that  time  the  Board  of  Health  employed 
a  veterinarian  to  tuberculin-test  the  various  dairy  herds.  There 
was  no  local  authority,  however,  to  compel  the  elimination  of  re- 
actors, some  of  the  dairymen  getting  rid  of  them  and  some  retaining 
them.  At  this  time  most  of  the  milk  sold  at  from  5c.  to  6c.  a  quart, 
retailed. 

This  test,  however,  called  the  attention  of  the  local  public  to  the 
situation,  and  several  of  our  more  progressive  dairymen  began  the 
annual  testing  of  their  cows  and  advertised  the  fact,  obtaining  a 
higher  price  for  their  milk.  As  time  went  on,  more  of  them  followed 
suit. 

The  history  of  the  campaign  for  better  milk  is  summarized 
as  follows: — 

Near  the  end  of  1910  under  a  new  city  charter,  the  Board  of  Pub- 
lic Safety  installed  a  modern  health  department,  directed  by  a  non- 
medical  but  technically  trained  health  officer,  who  began  an  ag- 
gressive campaign  for  a  better  milk  supply.  The  great  majority  of 
dairymen  tested  their  herds,  and  when  the  writer  took  office  at  the 
beginning  of  1914,  there  were  only  three  large  and  one  small  dairies 
remaining  untested,  and  of  these  one  large  dairy  had  tested,  but 
had  not  excluded  the  reactors. 

About  the  middle  of  1914  ...  I  obtained  from  the  City  Council 
an  ordinance  compelling  either  tuberculin-testing  or  pasteurization. 
For  a  while  some  pasteurized  milk  was  sold  in  Palo  Alto,  but  event- 
ually this  was  discontinued  for  the  reason  that  the  public  preferred 
the  raw  milk. 

I  am  very  aware  of  the  great  merit  of  pasteurization  as  a  measure 
of  safety  against  milk-borne  epidemics  in  cities  where  a  close  super- 
vision of  the  milk  supply  is  not  possible.  In  Palo  Alto,  however, 
we  are  able  to  supervise  our  dairymen  so  closely  that  the  danger 
of  milk-borne  epidemics  is  practically  negligible.  As  a  further  pro- 


240  APPENDIX  E 

tection  in  the  new  ordinance  which  we  are  now  drafting,  to  make 
our  local  ordinance  conform  to  the  new  state  dairy  law  which  goes 
into  effect  on  October  1st,  we  are  providing  that  all  employees 
engaged  in  the  production  of  the  higher  grades  of  milk  shall  have  at 
least  an  annual  medical  examination. 

I  am  sure  that  at  the  present  time  none  of  our  local  dairymen 
would  want  to  return  to  the  old  conditions,  even  though  some  of 
them  bucked  against  the  changes  pretty  hard.  The  public  has  sup- 
ported us  in  our  work  and,  so  far  as  I  know,  has  not  objected,  ex- 
cept in  some  few  rare  instances,  to  the  increase  of  retail  prices.  At 
the  present  time  the  better  grades  of  our  milk  are  retailed  for  lOc. 
a  quart  and  few  dairies  still  supply  a  small  amount  of  milk  at  8j  c.  a 
quart.  The  probability  is  that  after  the  new  law  goes  into  effect 
guaranteed  milk  will  sell  for  about  lie.  or  12c.,  grade  A,  10c.,  and 
grade  B,  8^c.  a  quart. 

Some  effort  was  made  to  obtain  exact  financial  data  re- 
garding the  relative  cost  and  profit  in  producing  high-grade 
and  low-grade  milk,  but  little  information  was  forthcoming 
from  the  dairymen. 

Several  stated  to  me,  however,  [writes  Mr.  Gray]  that  their 
net  profit  was  considerably  larger  for  the  production  of  good  quality 
milk  as  against  poor  quality.  They  based  this  statement  on  these 
factors:  * 

(1)  The  better  care  of  the  dairy  cows  meant  an  increased  produc- 
tion per  cow,  the  value  of  which  increase  was  much  in  excess  of  any 
expense  of  additional  feed. 

(2)  The  greater  interest  in  quality  has  led  to  a  greater  interest  in 
production  per  cow  (as  well  as  practically  compelled  it),  so  that 
they  have  weeded  out  the  "boarders"  or  unproductive  cattle. 

(3)  A  higher  grade  milk  has  commanded  higher  prices,  both 
wholesale  and  retail. 

It  is  to  be  wished  that  such  results  were  more  frequently 
the  case. 

*  These  evidently  refer  to  general  care  of  cows  and  food  quality  of 
milk  as  well  as  to  sanitation. — J.  S.  M. 


APPENDIX  E  241 

MONTCLAIR,  N.  J. 

The  town  of  Montclair,  N.  J.,  was  the  pioneer  in  the 
United  States  in  official  work  for  clean  milk,  and  has,  under 
a  succession  of  trained  health  officers,  brought  its  milk  stand- 
ards to  the  culmination  of  obtaining  a  tuberculin-tested  milk 
of  high  sanitary  quality.  At  Montclair  the  legal  question 
of  the  tuberculin  test  was  conspicuously  fought  out,  with 
the  result  that  an  important  victory  was  won  by  the  Board 
of  Health  and  the  legal  status  of  the  test  firmly  established. 
In  previous  pages  reference  has  been  made  to  Montclair  on 
several  points.  For  further  information  the  reader  is  re- 
ferred to  the  annual  reports  of  the  Board. 

RICHMOND,  VA. 

Strict  regulation  aiming  at  clean  milk  has  also  been  prac- 
ticed for  some  years  in  Richmond,  Va.,  under  the  direction 
of  the  Health  Officer,  Dr.  E.  C.  Levy.  Nearly  half  of  the 
market  milk  in  this  city  runs  under  10,000  bacteria  per  c.c., 
and  83.3  per  cent  of  it  below  50,000.  The  infantile  diarrhea 
death  rate  has  declined  remarkably,  year  by  year,  for  the 
last  four  years,  though  Dr.  Levy  remarks  that  he  does  not 
hold  "the  primitive  view  that  the  milk  supply  is  everything 
in  this  connection  or,  indeed,  that  it  is,  in  all  probability, 
the  most  important  single  thing. "  The  classification  of 
milk  recently  adopted  by  this  city,  (see  Appendix  B)  shows 
the  requirement  of  pasteurization  of  milk  not  of  the  first 
grade. 

WINNIPEG,  CANADA 

Dr.  A.  J.  Douglas,  Medical  Officer  of  Health,  writes  as 
follows : — 

From  the  experience  I  have  had,  my  personal  view  is  that  pas- 
teurization offers  the  most  satisfactory  solution  of  the  problem  of 
how  to  secure  a  safe  milk.  In  this  city  at  least  I  do  not  see  how  the 


242  APPENDIX  E 

situation  can  be  adequately  dealt  with  in  any  other  way.  This 
department  has  endeavored  for  the  past  fifteen  years  to  educate 
producers  and  to  point  out  the  advantages,  both  to  producer  and 
to  consumer,  of  clean  and  safe  milk.  ...  At  the  present  time  pos- 
sibly eighty  per  cent  of  our  local  supply  is  pasteurized,  and  we  know 
that  this  process  is  adequately  carried  out,  as  we  keep  an  inspector 
on  the  floor  of  each  plant.  A  few  years  ago  no  pasteurized  milk 
was  sold  here.  At  that  time  a  year  never  went  by  without  one 
or  more  outbreaks  of  disease,  usually  typhoid,  which  could  be  traced 
unequivocally  to  the  milk  supply.  Since  pasteurization  has  come 
extensively  into  use  some  four  years  ago,  we  have  not  had  a  single 
outbreak  of  disease  which  we  could  prove  was  milk-borne. 

MILK  SUPPLIES  OF  TEN  EASTERN  CITIES 

Several  years  ago  the  Jersey  Bulletin  *  collected  some 
interesting  information  and  figures  regarding  the  milk  sup- 
plies of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  Cleveland,  Buf- 
falo, Providence,  Columbus,  Toledo,  Hartford,  and  Burling- 
ton, Vt.,  published  in  an  article  concluding  as  follows: — 

In  summarizing,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  average  price  paid  per 
quart  by  the  consumer  in  all  the  ten  cities  is  about  7%  cents.  While 
specific  information  regarding  the  price  received  by  the  producer 
was  not  obtained  in  every  instance,  it  is  plain  to  see  that  it  averages 
close  to  3^2  cents  a  quart,  or  less  than  half  the  retail  price.  In 
other  words,  the  farmer  or  the  dairyman  has  to  keep  up  his  farm, 
maintain  his  cows,  feed  them,  milk  them  and  see  more  than  50  per 
cent  of  the  final  receipts  go  into  others'  hands,  while  his  receipts,  in 
many  instances,  barely  pay  the  cost  of  production. 

As  to  the  tuberculin  test,  the  average  opposition  to  rules  laid  down 
by  health  boards  in  this  regard  seems  to  be  about  98  per  cent; 
though  of  course  this  does  not  apply  in  the  case  of  certified  pro- 
ducers. The  feeling  of  the  farmer  producing  market  milk  has  al- 
ways been  antagonistic  to  strict  regulation  by  city  authorities,  and 
no  doubt  always  will  be  just  so  long  as  he  is  given  no  monetary  in- 
ducement to  practice  better  methods. 

The  fact  remains,  however,  that  the  average  standard  of  the  milk 
*  Jersey  Bulletin  and  Dairy  World,  Indianapolis,  Aug.  23,  1911. 


APPENDIX  E  243 

supply  of  our  large  cities  has  greatly  improved  in  the  last  few  years, 
and  even  though  the  methods  used  in  bringing  this  about  have 
been  in  many  places  strongly  objectionable  to  the  producer,  the 
results  have  directly  or  indirectly  been  generally  successful;  and 
now  that  the  public  has  become  better  educated  to  the  value  of 
good  milk,  it  remains  for  the  farmer  or  producer  to  impress  this 
fact  more  strongly  than  ever  by  keeping  up  the  quality,  to  the  end 
that  he  may  receive  for  his  milk  not  only  what  it  costs  him  to  pro- 
duce it,  but  a  reasonable  profit  thrown  in. 

THE    DAIRY    SITUATION    IN    FREDERICK    AND 
BALTIMORE  COUNTIES,  MARYLAND 

All  of  the  general  positions  taken  in  this  book  have  been 
strikingly  confirmed  in  an  intensive  survey,  made  during 
the  summer  of  1915,  of  the  milk  situation  in  Frederick  and 
Baltimore  Counties,  Maryland.  This  survey  brought  out 
exceedingly  important  points,  and,  since  similar  conditions 
prevail  in  many  other  regions,  has  more  than  a  local  interest. 
Hence  a  summary  account  of  it  is  here  reprinted  entire. 
The  investigation  was  made  by  the  Women's  Civic  League 
of  Baltimore,  in  cooperation  with  the  dairymen,  through  an 
investigator  qualified  to  deal  with  agricultural  questions. 
The  findings  involve  an  interesting  comparison  between 
differing  conditions  in  the  two  counties:  at  the  same  time 
they  may  be  compared,  as  a  small-scale  survey,  with  the 
large-scale  survey  in  New  England  by  the  Boston  Chamber 
of  Commerce  which  has  already  been  referred  to.  The 
analysis  of  the  sanitary  and  economic  questions  centering 
about  the  price  of  milk  is  the  pervading  characteristic  of  the 
report,  which  we  quote  without  further  comment :  * — 

The  purposes  of  these  investigations  were  two:  (1)  To  secure  the 
point-of-view  of  the  man  behind  the  cow  in  things  as  they  are  in 

*  Reprinted  from  The  Town,  organ  of  the  Women's  Civic  League, 
Baltimore,  Md.,  June  10,  1916.  The  report  is  based,  with  omission 
of  some  details,  on  two  earlier  reports. 


244  APPENDIX  E 

the  milk  business  and  to  record  his  suggestions  for  the  improve- 
ment of  these  things;  (2)  To  secure  facts  and  figures  relative  to  the 
actual  cost  of  production,  selling  price  and  profit  or  loss  among  the 
dairymen.  This  information  should  serve  as  a  basis  for  intelligent 
legislation. 

Those  farms  selling  milk  direct  into  Frederick  City  were  be- 
lieved to  serve  best  the  purposes  of  the  survey,  and  it  was  from 
these  47  dairymen  that  the  25  units  of  the  survey  were  selected. 
They  presented  a  problem  purely  productive  in  nature  and  uncom- 
plicated by  long  hauls  to  distant  markets. 

IS  DAIRYING  YOUR  SPECIALTY  OR  JUST  A  SIDE-LINE?     With  all  of 

the  25  men,  except  2,  who  sold  to  retail  trade,  the  milk  business 
was  merely  a  side-line. 

IS  IT  BETTER  OR  WORSE  THAN  IT  USED  TO  BE?     Only  2  thought  it 

better,  16  declared  it  worse,  and  7  thought  it  just  about  the  same. 

DO  YOU  WEIGH  THE  MILK  FROM  EACH  COW  AND  TOTAL  HER  PRO- 
DUCTION? Only  1  of  the  25  took  this  business  precaution. 

Do  YOU  KEEP  FARM  BOOKS?    Only  2  of  the  25  kept  farm  books. 

The  next  three  questions  established  the  fact  that  the  average 
dairyman  had  to  get  up  about  four  in  the  morning  and  that  many 
milked  by  lantern  light.  The  average  working  day  was  14%  hours! 

THE  TUBERCULIN  TEST  had  but  7  converts  and  many  of  these 
qualified  their  declaration  with,  "but  not  as  it  is  done  down  here." 
Eighteen  were  dead  against  it.  There  were  no  neutrals. 

ARE   THE   PRESENT  MILK   LAWS  FAIR  TO   THE   INTERESTS   OF   THE 

FARMER?  Upon  this  point  there  was  a  great  unanimity  of  opinion. 
Only  3  men  believed  that  the  farmer  was  getting  a  square  deal, 
while  20  were  loud  in  protestation  to  the  contrary.  Two  were 
neutral. 

DOES  DIRTY  MILK  CAUSE  DISEASE?  There  were  no  neutrals  on 
this  point;  15  believed  that  dirty  milk  might  cause  disease  or  even 
death,  but  10  denied  that  such  a  danger  existed. 

MILK  PRODUCED  PER  cow  PER  YEAR,  5,943  pounds.  The  average 
of  the  State  is  about  3,500  pounds.  This  average  is  very  low  and 
capable  of  being  doubled  and  then  doubled  again. 

COST  OF  PRODUCTION  PER  QUART  OF  MILK:  The  amount  of  milk 
produced  and  the  cost  of  production:  These  two  factors  control 
in  so  far  as  the  producer  is  concerned,  the  extent  of  his  profit  or  loss. 


APPENDIX  E  245 

Yet  only  one  farmer  out  of  25  was  able  to  approximate  the  amount 
produced,  and  not  one  was  able  to  even  hazard  a  guess  at  his  pro- 
duction cost.  Which  represents  the  main  distinction  between  the 
"milk  business"  and  simply  " shipping  milk." 

To  PRODUCE  A  QUART  OF  MILK  COST,  on  the  average,  3.5c.  (14.0c. 
per  gallon  the  year  through.) 

THE  AVERAGE  SELLING  PRICE  PER  QUART  was  3.8c.  (15. 2c  per 
gallon  the  year  through.) 

It  will  be  at  once  observed  how  small  is  the  margin  of  profit  from 
the  sale  of  milk  alone.  Nevertheless,  of  all  the  25  dairymen,  only  5 
were  actually  losing  money,  and  the  value  of  calves  and  manure 
produced  redeemed  3  of  these  to  the  extent  of  just  about  breaking 
even. 

Although  20  herds  were  making  some  money,  very  few  were 
making  their  owners  rich  or  even  adequately  compensating  them 
for  trials  and  tribulations  undergone.  The  average  dairyman 
ended  the  year  about  $330  ahead — a  little  less  than  a  dollar  a  day 
profit  from  the  sale  or  utilization  of  both  milk  and  calves.  To  this 
may  be  added  the  value  of  manure  produced  by  each  cow  during 
the  year. 

AVERAGE  PROFIT  PER  cow  PER  YEAR:  From  milk  and  calves  sold 
or  utilized,  this  profit  was  $17. 

WHAT  is  WRONG  WITH  THE  MILK  BUSINESS? 

THE  LAWS  were  attacked  by  12  farmers,  mainly  on  the  grounds 
that  they  were  written  from  a  citified  viewpoint  and  likewise  en- 
forced; that  they  raised  expenses  without  raising  prices;  and  that 
they  were  inefficiently  administered. 

INADEQUATE  PRICES  had  six  adherents.  Most  of  these  took  the 
stand  that  if  the  towns  want  better  milk  they  must  pay  better 
prices.  They  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  price  of  feeds, 
fertilizer  and  labor  has  almost  doubled  during  the  last  decade  and 
that  there  has  been  no  corresponding  increase  in  the  price  of  dairy 
products. 

THE  MIDDLEMAN  was  attacked  by  only  two  of  the  25. 

WHAT  SUGGESTIONS  HAVE  YOU  TO  MAKE  THINGS  BETTER?  An- 
swers on  this  point  were  vague  and  varied.  Those  who  held  legisla- 
tion at  fault  wanted  "better  laws;"  those  who  complained  of  "poor 
prices"  wanted  "better  prices;"  and  the  two  who  were  against  the 


246  APPENDIX  E 

middleman  advocated  direct  selling.  All  agreed  that  "  cooperation  " 
was  necessary  to  secure  their  several  ends. 

DOES  DIRTY  MILK  CAUSE  DISEASE?  Undoubtedly  it  does,  and 
sometimes  death,  especially  among  infants.  To  the  10  men  who 
stated  their  disbelief  in  any  danger  from  dirty  milk,  and  to  any 
other  who  may  hold  a  like  opinion,  we  would  say:  "Ask  Your 
Doctor." 

WHAT  is  WRONG  WITH  THE  MILK  BUSINESS?  Certainly  not  all 
the  trouble  can  be  traced  to  Inadequate  Prices.  The  production 
end  of  the  milk  business  is,  for  the  most  part,  being  carried  on  in 
an  unbusinesslike  manner,  and  the  producer  himself  thus  takes  rank 
among  the  factors  which  prevent  his  realizing  from  his  herd  all  that  he 
is  entitled  to.  We  believe  that  the  time  will  come  when  every  dairy- 
man will  find  it  profitable  to  produce  clean  milk  and  when  he  will  be 
able  to  turn  to  his  books  to  prove  the  extent  and  sources  of  this 
profit.  The  first  interest  of  the  State  should  be  the  industry  which 
feeds  the  State.  The  main  dependence  of  Maryland  agriculture  is 
the  dairy  farmer. 

We  cannot  believe  that  the  present  milk  laws  represent  the  main 
difficulty,  no  matter  how  imperfectly  they  may  have  been  drafted 
or  unsympathetically  applied. 

Any  one  dairyman  can  of  himself  reform  his  own  business  and, 
even  at  current  conditions  and  prices,  make  it  pay.  How?  Ask  the 
man  who  belongs  to  a  Cow  Testing  Association!  Of  course,  a  man 
does  not  have  to  join  a  Cow  Testing  Association;  he  can  weigh 
the  milk,  make  the  tests  and  figure  the  results  for  himself.  But,  if 
he  is  to  make  money  out  of  dairying  nowadays,  he  must  do  one  or 
the  other. 

Baltimore  County  showed  an  encouraging  degree  of  enlighten- 
ment and  fairmindedness  in  regard  to  the  latter-day  features  of 
the  business.  Where  Frederick  County  farmers  had  gone  on  record 
as  in  favor  of  only  about  one-third  of  these  things,  Baltimore  County 
declared  for  80  per  cent  of  them. 

Frederick  County  produced  its  milk  more  cheaply  and  made 
more  money  from  its  herds.  Its  production  cost  was  only  3.5c.  per 
quart  as  compared  to  an  average  quart-cost  of  4.5c.  in  Baltimore 
County.  And  to  this  latter  cost  may  be  added  0.5c.,  the  quart-cost 
of  "milk  tickets,"  a  thing  unknown  in  the  field  of  the  Frederick 


247 

-_j 

County  investigation,  where  the  shippers  sold  directly  into  Fred- 
erick City.  This  half-cent  transportation  charge  is  not,  strictly 
speaking,  a  part  of  the  Production  Cost,  but  it  does  represent  a 
substantial  part  of  what  might  be  called  the  Producer's  Cost,  and 
so  should  be  counted  in.  If  it  be  so  considered,  the  Baltimore 
countian  averaged  an  expenditure  of  5.0c.  for  every  quart  of  milk 
produced.  Of  course,  this  does  not  apply  to  the  few  who  shipped 
to  a  creamery  or  supplied  a  small  local  trade. 

An  (f)  after  a  figure  means  that  this  figure  is  greater  than  the 
corresponding  result  of  the  Frederick  County  investigation;  a 
minus-sign  means  that  it  is  less. 

IS  DAIRYING  YOUR  SPECIALTY  OR  JUST  A  SIDE-LINE?      Fifteen  (-) 

thought  the  business  a  side-line;  ten  decided  it  was  a  specialty. 

How  LONG  HAVE  YOU  BEEN  IN  THE  MILK  BUSINESS?  The  average 
was  18  years  (t). 

IS  IT  BETTER  OR  WORSE  THAN  IT  USED  TO  BE?      Two  thought  it 

better;  19  (t)  worse,  and  four  either  had  no  opinion  or  thought  it 
just  about  the  same. 

DO  YOU  WEIGH  THE  MILK  FROM  EACH  COW  AND  RECORD  HER  PRO- 
DUCTION? Five  (t)  of  the  25  took  this  business  precaution. 

Do  YOU  KEEP  FARM  BOOKS?    Ten  (f)  of  the  25  kept  books. 

THE  WORKING  DAY  was  thirteen  and  one-half  hours,  more  than 
an  hour  less  than  that  of  the  Frederick  County  dairymen,  but 
quite  a  day  at  that. 

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  SELL  TO  A  CREAMERY  OR  DIRECT  TO  TOWN 
AT  A  BULK  PRICE?  Twelve  (f)  preferred  the  creamery  and  ten 
shipping  to  town.  Three  had  no  preference. 

ARE  THE  PRESENT  MILK  LAWS  FAIR  TO  THE  INTERESTS  OF  THE 

FARMER?  Three  thought  the  laws  all  right;  eight,  among  whom  was 
a  lawyer,  declared  them  unfair,  and  14  held  no  opinion. 

NUMBER  OF  cows  PER  HERD:  The  average  was  30  (t). 

POUNDS  OF  MILK  PRODUCED  PER  cow  PER  YEAR  :  5,089  (-) .  Equiva- 
lent to  less  than  two  gallons  per  day  for  a  period  of  365  days. 

To  PRODUCE  A  QUART  OF  MILK  COST  4.5c.  (f).  (18c.  per  gallon 
the  year  through,  to  which  may  be  added  2.0c.,  the  gallon-cost  of 
milk  tickets.) 

THE  AVERAGE  SELLING  PRICE  PER  QUART  Was  4.2c.    (f).      (16. 8c. 

per  gallon  the  year  through.) 


248  APPENDIX  E 

PROFIT  OR  LOSS:  With  the  production  price  exceeding  the  selling 
price  a  county-wide  loss  would  seem  self-apparent.  This  loss,  how- 
ever, is  slightly  more  than  redeemed  by  the  value  of  calves  and 
manure  produced.  The  farms  included  in  the  survey  were,  in  al- 
most every  individual  case  and  on  the  average,  just  about  breaking 
even. 

From  the  sale  and  utilization  of  milk  and  calves  there  was  an 
annual  average  loss  per  cow  of  $6;  a  loss  offset  by  the  manure  which 
a  cow  will  produce  in  a  year.  So  it  seems  that  Baltimore  County 
is  just  about  breaking  even  from  its  efforts  to  supply  Baltimore 
City  with  milk. 

Aside  from  the  fertility  factor — an  important  but  not  a  very 
tangible  reward — the  only  other  excuse  for  being  in  the  milk  busi- 
ness seems  to  be  the  monthly  check.  This  is  an  undoubted  advan- 
tage. In  the  present  absence  of  any  logical  system  of  rural  credit 
many  farmers  are  practically  banking  with  the  milk  middleman; 
pouring  in  their  daily  deposits  of  value  and  drawing  out  in  cash  at 
the  first  of  the  month. 

WHAT  is  WRONG  WITH  THE  MILK  BUSINESS?  This  question,  put 
to  25  Baltimore  County  dairymen,  elicited  23  decided  opinions. 

One  dairyman  writes,  "Allow  me  to  predict  that,  if  conditions 
are  not  soon  bettered,  most  of  the  men  now  engaged  in  the  milk 
business  will  be  forced  out  of  it." 

Where  in  Frederick  County  the  disposition  was  to  lay  the  blame 
upon  the  present  laws,  Baltimore  County  was  practically  unani- 
mous in  blaming  the  system  of  marketing. 

Sixteen  thought  the  present  prices  paid  for  milk  to  be  insufficient 
in  view  of  the  constantly  growing  production  cost — a  belief  some- 
what supported  by  the  facts  obtained.  Six  attacked  the  middle- 
men. One  man  thought  the  trouble  to  be  in  "over-production" 
and  counselled  combination  in  view  of  finding  "some  method  to 
take  care  of  the  surplus." 

WHAT  SUGGESTIONS  HAVE  YOU  TO  MAKE  THINGS  BETTER?  The 
great  majority  of  answers  to  this  question  simply  advocated  a  "fair 
price."  Some  specified  this  price  to  be  "20c.  in  summer  and  25c.  in 
winter,  showing  that  the  farmers  have  at  least  an  idea  of  what  it  is 
costing  them  to  produce  the  milk  they  are  selling  for  16.2c." 

"Milk  should  be  graded  as  is  the  case  of  all  other  foodstuffs," 


APPENDIX  E  249 

writes  one  large  producer  and  two  others  say  almost  exactly  the 
same  thing. 

Apropos  of  the  condition  and  correction  for  the  condition  of  the 
milk  business  are  the  remarks  of  one  of  the  largest  milk  middlemen 
of  Baltimore,  made  recently  in  the  presence  of  a  representative  of 
the  League: 

THE  MIDDLEMAN'S  VIEW-POINT:  "Farmers  often  come  to  me  and 
say,  'I'm  losing  money  by  selling  milk.  I've  got  to  have  a  better 
price.' 

" '  How  much  money  are  you  losing? '  They  don't  know.  '  Don't 
you  keep  books? '  No;  they  never  bother  with  them.  They  don't 
weigh  their  milk  and  keep  account  of  their  individual  cows;  their 
herds  are  full  of  star  boarders,  eating  their  heads  off.  Very  often 
they  don't  have  silos;  they  don't  try  to  raise  all  of  their  own  feed, 
and  they  don't  feed  intelligently.  Their  product  is  poor  and  often 
below  city  standard.  No  wonder  they  are  losing  money! 

"Some  farmers  producing  milk  testing  high  in  butter-fat,  low  in 
bacteria,  and  who  have  their  cattle  tuberculin  tested  every  12 
months  are  getting  now,  an  advanced  price." 

"A  general  rise  in  the  retail  price  of  milk,  however,  is  next  to 
impossible  in  the  light  of  present  public  opinion. 

"It  is  true  that  the  margin  of  profit  is  small;  the  only  way  for  the 
producer  to  make  money  is  through  more  economical  methods  and 
'better  cows.'" 

The  wide  difference  of  opinion  between  the  producer  and  the 
seller  of  milk  is  at  once  apparent.  They  see  the  thing  from  entirely 
different  angles.  Broadly  speaking,  each  blames  the  other.  It  is 
important  to  note,  however,  that  the  middleman  quoted  was  in 
complete  accord  with  the  several  producers  who  advocated  a  system 
of  graded  milk — a  practical  point  in  favor  of  the  system. 

It  seems  obvious  that  the  dairy  business  can  easily  be  system- 
atized and  improved  so  that  much  larger  profits  will  be  earned. 
Then  the  dairy  farmer  can  satisfy  the  demands  of  the  consumer 
and  can,  when  the  legitimate  costs  justify  it,  ask  a  larger  price  for 
his  commodity.  The  consumer  should  be  willing  to  pay  a  fair  price 
for  safe  milk,  but  he  should  not  be  asked  to  pay  for  a  high  cost  of 
production  due  to  inefficient  methods. 

RUSSELL  R.  LORD. 


250  APPENDIX  E 

Limitation  of  space  forbids  further  mention  of  conditions 
in  individual  localities.  A  great  many  special  investigations 
have  been  made,  some  by  the  Federal  Department  of  Agri- 
culture, some  by  state  or  local  authorities  or  individual  in- 
vestigators. The  preceding  condensed  statements  are  in- 
tended to  be  merely  illustrative  of  varying  local  situations 
and  individual  comment. 

COOPERATIVE  PASTEURIZATION  AT  RIVERSIDE,  CAL.* 

A  cooperative  pasteurizing  plant  which  has  many  novel  features 
has  been  operated  for  some  time  in  Riverside.  While  owners  of 
small  dairies  under  the  new  law,  may  have  their  cows  tuberculin- 
tested,  without  resorting  to  pasteurization,  it  is  possible  that  owners 
of  small  dairies  may  desire  to  cooperate  in  the  establishment  of  a 
pasteurizing  plant  like  the  Riverside  institution. 

Seven  dairymen  organized  the  company  in  Riverside,  which  was 
incorporated  with  $20,000  capital  stock,  $8,500  of  which  was  paid 
in  by  the  organizers.  This  capital  paid-in  stock  was  to  draw  7  per 
cent  interest,  payable  semiannually.  A  sufficient  amount  of  money 
was  borrowed  to  buy  the  property,  build  the  plant  and  install  the 
machinery.  The  plant  started  operating  in  March,  1911.  No 
stock  has  been  sold  since  that  date  and  none  is  held  by  any  one 
other  than  a  dairyman. 

Dr.  George  E.  Tucker,  city  health  officer  of  Riverside,  says  of 
the  operation  of  this  plant  and  of  its  effect  upon  conditions  in 
Riverside: 

"Before  this  plan  was  started,  eight  dairies  were  selling  milk  in 
the  city,  with  eight  wagons  making  two  deliveries  a  day,  and  prac- 
tically every  block  within  one  mile  square  was  covered  by  each  of 
the  eight  wagons  in  the  early  morning  and  in  the  evening. 

"  In  July,  1910,  milk  retailed  at  eight  and  one-third  cents  per 
quart.  In  November,  1910,  the  price  was  raised  to  ten  cents  per 
quart.  A  series  of  tests  showed  the  butter-fat  content  to  vary  from 
3  to  4J/2  per  cent,  depending  to  a  certain  extent  upon  the  convenience 
of  the  water  supply. 

*  Bull.  Cal.  State  Bd.  of  Health,  May,  1916, 


APPENDIX  E  251 

"  After  formation  of  the  dairy  company,  the  price  was  immedi- 
ately reduced  and  reductions  have  continued  until  at  the  present 
time  milk  containing  4.2  to  4.5  per  cent  butter-fat  is  sold  for  15 
quarts  for  $1.00,  or  at  62/3  cents  per  quart. 

"  Since  the  formation  of  this  company  the  number  of  dairies  in 
the  county  has  doubled. 

"  All  the  milk  and  cream  is  pasteurized  by  being  subjected  to  a 
temperature  of  from  147  to  160  degrees  for  ten  to  fifteen  minutes. 
The  milk  is  first  aerated  and  cooled  at  the  dairies,  delivered  im- 
mediately to  the  central  plant,  where  it  is  pasteurized,  bottled, 
reduced  to  a  temperature  of  between  30  and  40  degrees  Fahrenheit 
in  the  precooling  plant  and  delivered  to  the  consumer. 

"  For  the  purpose  of  delivery  but  three  wagons  are  used  for  the 
retail  trade,  whereas  formerly  the  same  amount  of  milk  from  the 
same  number  of  dairies  would  have  required  fifteen  wagons. 

"  The  total  investment  in  this  distributing  station  at  the  present 
time  represents  in  real  estate,  buildings,  machinery  and  improve- 
ments about  $31,000.  There  is  a  floating  indebtedness  of  $11,000, 
drawing  6  per  cent  interest,  and  accumulated  assets  of  $9,500. 

"  Three  dairyman  are  employed  to  manage  the  business  at  a  suf- 
ficient salary  to  justify  them  in  accepting  such  employment  and 
discontinuing  active  dairy  work.  Sweet  milk  and  cream  are  sold 
not  only  in  the  city  of  Riverside,  but  in  the  adjoining  towns. 

"  There  are  at  the  present  time  ten  employees:  the  three  dairy- 
men above  mentioned,  three  men  for  delivery  and  three  men  who 
operate  the  plant,  and  one  bookkeeper. 

"  The  advantage  of  this  method  of  handling  the  city  milk  supply 
is  apparent.  If  at  any  time  it  is  found  on  inspection  that  any  of  the 
contributors  to  this  station  are  producing  milk  under  conditions 
which  are  not  satisfactory,  a  notice  to  the  producer  from  the  plant 
is  sufficient  to  prevent  the  sale  of  this  milk.  The  fact  that  our 
general  milk  supply  is  pasteurized  does  not  in  any  way  deter  either 
the  dairymen  or  the  inspectors  from  insisting  upon  the  production 
of  clean  milk. 

"  I  believe  that  the  result  of  the  central  dairy  plant  experiment 
has  fostered  and  very  greatly  increased  the  dairy  business;  that 
the  dairymen  receive  more  for  their  products;  that  the  consumer 
receives  a  higher  grade  of  milk  at  a  less  cost,  and  that  two-thirds  of 


252  APPENDIX  E 

the  vexatious  problems  in  the  control  of  a  small  community's  milk 
supply  have  been  solved  by  the  introduction  of  this  plan." 

HINTS  FOR  LOCAL  MILK  COMMITTEES  * 

1.  In  undertaking  to  secure  better  milk  for  any  community  it  is 
first  important  to  read  the  reports  of  the  New  York  Milk  Committee 
and  those  of  other  cities,  and  it  will  be  found  helpful  to  read  the 
reports  of  the  Public  Health  Service  on  milk.    Perhaps  the  most 
valuable  document  is  the  Report  of  the  Commission  on  Milk  Stand- 
ards appointed  by  the  New  York  Milk  Committee,  printed  by  the 
United  States  Public  Health  Service  in  1912  and  again  in  1913. 
[A  third  revised  report  has  appeared  in  1917. — J.  S.  M.] 

2.  It  is  also  indispensable  that  by  every  possible  method,  com- 
mittees dealing  with  milk  should  know  thoroughly  the  methods  of 
production,  from  cow  to  consumer,  and  the  difficulties  that  beset 
the  dairy  farmer  and  the  city  dairy  companies. 

3.  But  perhaps  the  most  valuable  step  is  that  which  puts  a  milk 
committee  in  touch  with  the  local  public  health  authorities.    It  will 
be  found  in  most  communities  that  both  city  and  state  health  de- 
partments are  inadequately  manned  and  equipped  to  deal  effectively 
with  milk  problems.    Even  if  this  is  not  true  the  health  department 
will  undoubtedly  welcome  any  agency  helping  to  bring  to  the  at- 
tention of  the  public  the  rules  and  regulations  of  the  department 
and  suggestions  for  better  health  conditions. 

4.  The  next  step  will  commonly  be  to  employ  an  investigator,  who 
has  had  proper  scientific  training,  to  work  with  the  health  depart- 
ment in  securing  a  report  on  the  exact  condition  of  the  milk  served 
to  the  public.    This  can  then  be  made  the  basis  of  requests  from  the 
appropriating  powers  for  proper  men  and  equipment  to  take  care 
of  the  milk  situation  where  it  should  be  handled — in  the  health 
department. 

*  From  an  article  entitled  "How  a  civic  league  secured  a  clean  milk 
supply,"  by  Harlean  James  (Exec.  Sec'y,  Women's  Civic  League, 
Baltimore),  The  Survey,  Jan.  16,  1915. 


APPENDIX  F 

MILK  PRODUCTS 

The  scope  of  the  present  volume  has  forbidden  treatment 
of  the  various  products  derived  from  milk  by  modern  in- 
dustry. For  these  the  same  general  considerations  hold,  so 
far  as  may  be,  as  for  milk.  The  pasteurization  of  the  milk 
from  which  these  products  are  made,  or  of  the  product  itself, 
is  very  desirable  and  is,  in  fact,  rather  general  in  practice. 
The  concentration  of  manufacture  in  plants  of  some  size  is 
a  factor  which  makes  for  the  readier  control  of  milk  products, 
though  the  sources  of  the  milk  entering  into  these  also  call 
for  attention.  Through  modern  economic  conditions  certain 
of  these  products,  such  as  condensed  milk,  evaporated  milk, 
and  skim  milk,  have  come  into  wide  use  as  substitutes  for 
fresh  milk. 

The  National  Commission  on  Milk  Standards  (of  the  New 
York  Milk  Committee)  has  had  under  consideration  certain 
products — such  as  butter,  ice  cream,  condensed  milk,  skim 
milk,  buttermilk,  and  homogenized  milk  and  cream — and 
the  reader  is  referred  to  the  reports  of  the  Commission  *  for 
information  on  their  sanitary  aspects.  In  the  control  of  these 
products  the  principle  of  correct  labelling  plays  a  most  im- 
portant part. 

*  See  3d.  Kept. 


253 


INDEX 


V  Administration   of   milk   control, 

163 

Agricultural  authorities,  52-54, 
164-66 

Bacteria  and  milk,  13 

Bacteriological  tests  and  stand- 
ards, 67,  92.  See  also  Labora- 
tory. 

Baltimore,  243 

Boston.    See  New  England. 

Brockton,  Mass.,  83  (pi.),  236 

Butter  fat,  labelling  as  to,  92, 
154-55;  payments  for,  by 
dealers,  144;  standards  for,  see 
Chemical  tests. 

"Carriers,"  disease,  14-15 
Central  distribution,  139-40,  250- 

52 

Centralization,  170 
N  Certified  milk,  67 

Chemical  tests  and  standards,  89. 

See  also  Laboratory. 
Cities,   "milksheds"   of,   39,   etc. 

(figs.);    milk    supplies    of    ten 

Eastern,  242 
s  Clarification,  113;  "public  value" 

of,  156 
"  Clean  milk,  movement  for,  66,  69; 

rational  methods  in  producing, 

76;  cost  of,  158,  222 
Communicable  disease.    See  Milk- 
borne  disease. 
Consumer,  57 


Contamination,  10;  tests  for,  97 
Contests,  dairymen's,  115 
Contractor.    See  Dealer. 
Cooperative  plans,  170,  250;  for 

farmers'  milk  depots,  142-44 
Cost  of  milk,  factors  in,  138,  157- 

58,  221-23;  and  prices,  157 
Cost  of  milk  distribution,  139-40, 

221-22 
Cost  of  milk  production,  138-39, 

214;  vs.  prices,  46-48,  126-33; 

extra,  for  sanitary  milk,  158,  222 
Cream,  grading  of,  194,  198,  200, 

201 

Dairy  cows,  profitable  and  un- 
profitable, 135-36;  statistics  of, 
185-88 

Dairy  demonstration,  161 

Dairy  score  card.    See  Score  card. 

Dairying,  decline  of,  in  certain 
regions,  121;  inefficiency  and 
waste  in,  110  (pi.),  133-38,  see 
also  Milk  industry. 

Dairyman.    See  Dealer,  Farmer. 

Dealer,  54,  141;  and  farmer,  142 

Decency,  12-13;  "public  value" 
of,  156 

Dirt,  in  relation  to  milk,  10;  tests 
for,  97 

Disease.    See  Milk-borne  disease. 

Distributer.    See  Dealer. 

Distribution,  cost  of,  139-40, 
221-22;  plans  for  improving, 
139-40,  171,  250-52 


255 


256 


INDEX 


Economic  effects  of  sanitary  regu- 
lation, 147 

Economic  importance  of  milk, 
6-9,  121 

Economic  question,  crux  of,  122 

Epidemics.  See  Milk-borne  dis- 
ease. 

Exhibitions,  115 

Farmer,  46,  122-38;  and  dealer, 
142 

Farmers'  organization,  need  of, 
51,  145;  for  marketing,  170;  for 
milk  depots,  142-44,  170 

Federal  authorities,  165 

Grades  of  milk,  "public  values" 

of,  156 
Grading  of  milk,   116;  need  for, 

147,  149-51,  152-53;  principles 

and    application    of,     153-55; 

systems  of,  118,  189;  effects  of, 

150-51,  159 
Guaranty   system   of   milk   sale, 

91-92 

^Health  official,  44 
Homer  plan,  203,  etc. 
Homogenization,  114 

Infant    mortality    and    hygiene, 

15-21 
"*  Infant  welfare  stations,  86 

Infection  in  milk.    See  Milk-borne 

disease. 

-v  Inspection,   161.     See  also  Score 
card. 

Laboratory,  145  (pi.),  160,  166- 

67;  tests  and  standards,  89 
^  Legislation,  167 
Legislator,  60 


Local  differences,  169 

Local  milk  committees,  hints  for, 

252 

v  Local  supervision,  163-64,  166; 
establishment  of,  169-70;  co- 
operative, 167 

Maryland,  243 

Massachusetts.  See  New  Eng- 
land. 

Microscopic  examination,  96 

Middleman.    See  Dealer. 

Milch  cows,  profitable  and  un- 
profitable, 135-36;  statistics  oi, 
185-88 

Milk,  composition,  food  value, 
and  use  of,  5-9;  pecuniary  econ- 
omy of,  6;  dangers  in,  9-29; 
fermentation  and  decomposi- 
tion of,  13;  sanitary,  general 
requirements  for,  29  .\  See  also 
Clean  milk. 

"""Milk  control,  by  local  authorities, 
163-64,  166,  169-70;  by  state 
authorities,  163-66;  relative  im- 
portance of,  61 

Milk  industry,  primitive  and  ad- 
vanced conditions  in,  110,  etc. 

(pis.). 
Milk  problem,  in  general,  1-5,  35- 

42,  61-63;  solution  of,  summed 

up,  174-76 
Milk  processes,  114 
Milk  products,  253 
Milk  stations,  86-89 
Milk  statistics,  185 
Milk-borne  disease,  14-15,  21-29 
Milkman,  the  old-style,  35 
"Milksheds"  of  large  cities,  39, 

etc.  (figs.). 
Milwaukee,  233 
Monfcclair,  N.  J.,  241 


INDEX 


257 


\ 


Municipalization  of  milk  supplies, 
171,  172-74 

National  Commission  on  Milk 
Standards,  189 

New  England,  142-44,  149-50, 
214-20,  225 

New  Jersey,  231 

New  York  City,  grading  system 
of,  197 

New  York  Dairy  Demonstration 
Co.,  203,  etc. 

New  York  Milk  Committee,  Com- 
mission on  Milk  Standards  of, 
189 

New  York  market  prices,  whole- 
sale, 224 

New  York  State,  grading  system 
of,  199;  situation  in,  229 

North  system,  78,  161,  203 

North's  "public  value"  of  dif- 
ferent milks,  155 


Orange,  N.  J.,  201 
Organization,  163,  169-70 
Organizations,  unofficial,  59;  hints 
for,  252.    See  also  Farmers'  or- 
ganization. 

Palo  Alto,  Cal.,  238 

Pasteurization,  102;  time  and 
temperature  for,  104  (fig.); 
methods  of,  109;  requirement 
of,  110-13;  cost  of,  222;  plants 
for,  cooperative,  171,  250;  in 
"public  value"  of  milk,  156 

Physician,  59 

Politics,  4-5,  60 

Prices,  milk,  general  considera- 
tions relating  to,  157;  in  rela- 
tion to  the  farmer,  126,  221; 


effects  of  sanitary  regulation 
on,  147-51;  retail,  comparative, 
127-28;  retail,  and  "public 
value"  of  milks,  156;  retail, 
stability  of,  146;  retail,  ticket 
system  and  fractional  prices  in 
adjustment  of,  146-47;  whole- 
sale, according  to  quality,  144- 
45;  in  U.  S.,  wholesale  and  re- 
tail, 223 

Production,  cost  of.  See  Cost  of 
milk  production. 

"Public  value"  of  different  milks, 
155 

Publicity,  regarding  milk  problem, 
31-34;  of  ratings  of  milk  sup- 
plies, 114 

"Pure  milk,"  demand  for,  and 
publicity,  31-35;  practical  def- 
inition of,  29 

Railroads  and  rate  question,  56 

Regulation,  sanitary,  develop- 
ment of,  64,  etc.;  economic  ef- 
fects of,  147.  See  also  Milk  con- 
trol, Legislation. 

Retailer.    See  Dealer. 

Retailing  of  milk  by  ticket  system 
and  fractional  prices,  146-47 

Rhode  Island,  231 

Richmond,  Va.,  grading  system 
of,  200;  situation  in,  241 

Riverside,  Cal.,  250 

Sanitary  milk.    See  under  Milk. 

Sanitary  regulation.  See  Regula- 
tion. 

Score-card  method  of  inspection, 
70,83 

Sediment  tests,  97-100 

Standards     for    milk,     National 


258  INDEX 

Commission  on,  189.     See  also      Tuberculosis,  bovine,  in  relation 
Bacteriological,  Chemical  tests.          to  milk  supplies,  and  tuberculin 
State  supervision,  163-66  test  for,  23-25,  100 

Vermont,  149-50.     See  also  New 
Ticket  system  of  retail  payments,          Eneland 

146 
Transportation  problem,  56  Winnipeg,  241 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


1HE  following  pages  contain  advertisements  of  a  few 
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Public  Health  Nursing 


BY  MARY  SEWALL  GARDNER,  R.  N. 

Superintendent  of  the  Providence  District  Nursing  Association;  Presi- 
dent of  the  National  Organization  for  Public  Health  Nursing,  1913-1916 

WITH  AN   INTRODUCTION   BY 

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Professor  of  Nursing  and  Health,  and  Director  of  Department,  Teachers' 
College,  Columbia  University 

12mo,  372  pp.,  index  and  appendix.    Price,  $1.75 

Probably  the  best  description  of  this  authorita- 
tive work  is  contained  in  the  opinion  expressed  by 
Miss  Nutting  in  the  Introduction : 

"Miss  Gardner  has  performed  an  important 
service  in  placing  at  our  disposal  the  first  really 
comprehensive  presentation  of  so  timely  a  subject 
as  Public  Health  Nursing,  a  subject  whose  develop- 
ment and  status  are  becoming  increasingly  im- 
portant as  a  matter  of  vital  public  interest.  From 
the  depths  not  only  of  a  rich  experience  preceded 
by  a  careful  training,  but  of  an  unusual  understand- 
ing of,  and  respect  for,  human  relationships,  she 
brings  forth  the  mature  wisdom  which  charac- 
terizes the  book.  Miss  Gardner  knows  her  sub- 
ject from  within — every  stage  of  it.  She  reveals 
herself  as  a  woman  of  quite  exceptional  adminis- 
trative insight.  Seen  through  her  eyes,  com- 
plicated situations  become  clarified,  difficulties 
dissolved,  and  the  work  moves  easily  to  accom- 
plishment along  well  directed  lines." 


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Publishers          64-66  Fifth  Avenue         New  York 


Principles  of  Sanitary  Science  and  the 
Public  Health 

With  Special  Reference  to  the  Causation  and  Prevention  of 
Infectious  Diseases 

BY  WILLIAM  G.  SEDGWICK,  PH.D.    New  York 

868  pp.,  8vo,  $3.00 

The  direct  outgrowth  of  a  course  of  lectures  given  for 
several  years  by  the  author  to  his  students. 

The  author  prefers  to  deal  as  far  as  possible  at  first  hand 
with  matters  within  his  own  knowledge  rather  than  to  de- 
pend upon  the  digests  or  even  the  original  reports  of  others. 

Discusses  the  principles  rather  than  the  arts  of  sanitation. 

Well  adapted  for  text  or  reference  use  in  courses  on  hy- 
giene and  sanitation. 

Laboratory  Guide  in  Market  Milk 

BY  H.  E.  ROSS 

Professor  of  Dairy  Industry  in  the  New  York  State  College  of  Agricul- 
ture at  Cornell  University 

65  pp.,  8vo,  $.60 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  laboratory  guide  to  enable  the 
student  to  better  understand  the  application  of  science  to 
clean  milk  production,  and  to  impress  on  his  mind  the  neces- 
sity for  attention  to  detail  in  this  branch  of  dairy  industry. 


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Dairy  Cattle  and  Milk  Production 

Prepared  for  the  Use  of  Agricultural  College  Students  and 
Dairy  Farmers 

BY  CLARENCE  H.  ECKLES,  B.S.A,  M.Sc. 

Professor  of  Dairy  Husbandry,  University  of  Missouri 

$1.60 

Dairy  cattle  and  dairy  farming  are  assuming  a  position 
of  great  importance  in  the  agriculture  of  America,  and  in- 
struction in  these  subjects  is  an  important  part  of  all  courses 
in  agricultural  schools  and  colleges.  Professor  Eckles's 
book  is  prepared  primarily  for  the  use  of  students  in  agricul- 
ture, but  the  material  is  so  thoroughly  practical  that  farmers 
and  dairymen  who  wish  the  most  recent  knowledge  regard- 
ing the  dairy  cow  will  profit  by  a  reading  of  it. 

The  author  has  brought  together  from  widely  scattered 
sources  all  the  information  necessary  to  acquaint  the  student 
or  farmer  with  the  principles  he  must  understand  and  prac- 
tice in  order  to  be  successful  with  dairy  cattle.  He  takes  up 
ail  of  the  dairy  breeds,  their  characteristics  and  adaptations. 
The  selection  of  the  individual  cow,  calf-raising,  manage- 
ment of  the  cow,  breeding,  stable  construction,  as  well  as  a 
consideration  of  the  ailments  of  cattle,  likewise  come  in  for 
detailed  treatment. 

The  book  will  render  great  assistance  to  the  practical 
farmer  interested  in  dairy  cattle,  who  will  find  the  material 
presented  here  in  such  a  way  that  it  will  assist  him  to  care 
properly  for  his  animals  and  to  produce  milk  economically. 
For  fifteen  years  Professor  Eckles  has  had  charge  of  a  herd 
of  from  thirty  to  fifty  cows,  including  all  the  leading  dairy 
breeds.  For  the  past  ten  years  he  has  been  teaching  in  the 
University  of  Missouri  where  he  is  Professor  of  Dairy  Hus- 
bandry. His  combined  experiences  have  well  fitted  him  for 
the  task  of  writing  the  book  on  dairy  cattle  and  milk  produc- 
tion. 


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Milk  and  Its  Products 

BY  HENRY  H.  WING 

Professor  of  Dairy  Husbandry  in  Cornell  University 

New  revised  edition.    With  new  illustrations.    Cloth,  12mo,  $1.50 

The  revolution  in  dairy  practice,  brought  about  by 
the  introduction  of  the  centrifugal  cream  separator 
and  the  Babcock  test  for  fat,  by  a  more  definite 
knowledge  regarding  the  various  fermentations 
that  so  greatly  influence  milk,  and  the  manufac- 
ture of  its  products,  have  demanded  the  publi- 
cation of  a  book  that  shall  give  to  the  dairyman, 
and  particularly  to  the  dairy  student,  in  simple, 
concise  form,  the  principles  underlying  modern 
dairy  practice.  Such  has  been  Professor  Wing's 
purpose  in  this  work.  This  is  not  a  new  edition  of 
the  author's  very  successful  volume  published 
under  the  same  title  many  years  ago;  it  is,  in  reality, 
an  entirely  new  book,  having  been  wholly  reset 
and  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  new  matter,  both 
text  and  illustrations.  The  author's  aim  has  been 
at  all  times  to  give  the  present  state  of  knowledge 
as  supported  by  the  weight  of  evidence  and  the 
opinions  of  those  whose  authority  is  highest. 


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